As Albania is accelerating its preparations towards the European Union candidate status, numerous areas of public policy and practices undergo intensive development processes. Regional development policy is a very new area of public policy in Albania, and needs research and development. This study focuses on the process of sustainable development in Albania, by analyzing and comparing the regional development of regions of Tirana, Shkodra and Kukes. The methodology used consists of a literature/desk review; analytical and comparative approach; qualitative interviews; quantitative data collection; analysis. The research is organized in five chapters. First chapter provides an overview of the study framework. The second outlines the theory and scientific framework for sustainable and regional development in relation with geography. The third chapter presents the picture of the regional development in Albania, analyzing the disparities and regional development in the light of EU requirements and NUTS division. Chapter 4 continues by analyzing and comparing the regional development of the regions: Tirana – driver for change, Shkodra – the North in Development and Kukes – the “shrinking” region. Chapter 5 presents the conclusions and recommendations. This research comes to the conclusions that if growth in Albania is to be increased and sustained, a regional development policy needs to be established.

In parallel to developments around the world, regional policy issue has become an important issue in Turkey&rsquo / s agenda. However, political tools such as projects and plans were performed poorly due to the fact that these policy efforts failed to take into account bottom-up institutional setting according to own dynamics of each region. The European integration has made a positive impact on Turkey&rsquo / s highly centralized structure. Turkey displayed a series of changes within the scope of institutional reforms. Firstly, NUTS Classification in accordance with EU&rsquo / s statistical regions was introduced and then, Development Agencies were established by The Law on The Establishment and Duties of Development Agencies, based on NUTS-II regions. Thus, institutionalization at regional level was emerged for the first time in Turkish history as one of the significant movement. Following experiences gained during the institutional establishment efforts, this thesis aims to examine the existing DA&rsquo / s institutional performance in the regional plan activities. Izmir Development Agency (IZKA) was chosen as a case study topic in order to explore how Development Agencies perform regional plan in terms of institutional infrastructure. To achieve this aim, the research was formed into two stages. Firstly / factors, affecting the institutional performance were determined. Secondly / IZKA was assessed over these factors. Qualitative research method through in-depth interviews was conducted in order to assess IZKA&rsquo / s institutional performance in operationalizing Izmir Regional Plan 2010-2013. In addition, documented texts were incorporated as the secondary data.

This doctoral thesis concerns the interplay between multinational enterprises (MNE) and spatial economies, with an orientation towards the location and spillover effects of inward foreign direct investments (FDI). The thesis consists of four essays that are self-contained studies. The first essay relates to the shift away from FDI in manufacturing to services and examines whether service FDI locates differently from manufacturing FDI. The second essay concerns the relationship between FDI and public incentives and whether investment promotion schemes are useful to attract FDI. The third essay examines the link between human capital and FDI and how different types of skilled workers influence FDI location. Taken together, these three essays examine conditions and factors that determine the location decision of foreign MNEs in the contemporary era of globalisation. The forth essay examines whether labour mobility is a potential source for spillovers from FDI in a spatial context. Although the latter essay does not provide any final answer to whether spillovers actually arise through this channel, it shows that the potentials for an effect to arise are larger in some regions than others because there are very few or no such knowledge spillover agents in many parts of the country. The thesis concludes by discussing the link between FDI and the policy work on regional development, and some avenues for future studies. / <p>QC 20130816</p>

This thesis deals with regional development policy in Corsica region in the periods 2000-2006 and 2007-2013. During the first period region remained temporarily in objective 1 - Promoting the development and structural adjustment of regions whose development is lagging behind. This period should facilitate the preparation for the transition into the developed European regions. The aim is to answer the question whether the region succeeded in coping with the new requirements of regional policy in 2007-2013 and if any shift towards an economy based on competitiveness and employment occurred there in contrast with the previous period. Based on the theory of new regionalism and learning regions this work defines three criteria which are used to compare of regional policy region in the given time frame. These are the institutional embeddedness with regard to who is involved in the negotiation of regional policy strategy, the environment in terms of economic configuration of the region and the density of institutions focusing on cooperation between fields of education, research and the private sector. The analysis shows that there has been an economic growth in the region. On the other side the regional policy could not fully focus on competitiveness and employment, as it has to deal with structural...

The research is to study how the difference of economic development between cities is from by observing the change in investment. The different main bodies of investment will make different investment decisions in different stage of life cycle of urban industries. The state-owned units are policy tools, and will invest in urban infrastructure, which is not for profit. In contrast, the only goal of non-state owned enterprises is to maximize the profit, but evade the risk, so they will invest in any profitable items. Finally, the non-state investment will exceed the state investment, and to be more and more important in a city. I select fifty big cities in china to empirically analyze the proposition, and the result indicate that the fixed-investment of non-state sector have exceeded the fixed-investment of the state sector in coastal cities, and the fixed-investment of the state sector is still more than the fixed-investment of non-state sector in inland cities. Under the condition that the goal of government policy is to raise the standard of the infrastructure of inland cities, and that the most industries of coastal cities are staying in industrial growth period, the cities with higher level of economic development grow fast more.

The rapid growth of the global economy in the last two decades has created a new economic reality in many municipalities in peripheral regions of Sweden. Having earlier relied on traditional industry as the source of employment, today municipalities in peripheral regions are struggling to survive in a completely changed economic landscape, with new conditions for development. The dismantling of trade barriers, accessibility of new markets for production, and faster and cheaper modes of communication and transportation have combined in changing the conditions for development. While historically peripheral regions have depended on manufacturing firms as a source of employment, indications today show that local and regional development is enhanced through the development of locally acquired relationships that promote knowledge creation and transmission. In the past, the Swedish government had put in place measures to promote a degree of regional parities. These included enticement schemes to industry and the relocation of public bodies. Faced with the global winds of change that have arisen in the last few decades, this approach is becoming unsustainable. The overall aim of this dissertation is to contribute to the research aimed at enhancing regional economic development and to increase the understanding of as well as give insights into local economic development processes aimed at meeting global challenges in a peripheral region. In it I explore the two interrelated questions of 1) what are the mechanisms influencing location of economic activities and industrial policy in peripheral regions? 2) How do these mechanisms manifest themselves in a peripheral region? In this study, three case studies of local development processes in the two municipalities of Ljusdal and Söderhamn, in the geographical region of Hälsingland are presented. The case studies are named the business case, the policy case and the hybrid case to reflect the mechanisms that induced them. / Den globala ekonomins snabba tillväxt under de senaste två decennierna har skapat en ny ekonomisk verklighet i många svenska periferiregioner. Från att tidigare ha kunnat förlita sig på traditionell industri som grund för sysselsättningen, så måste dessa regioner idag kämpa för sin överlevnad i ett mycket annorlunda ekonomiskt landskap, med nya förutsättningar för utveckling. Avvecklingen av handelshinder, tillgång till nya produktionsmarknader samt snabbare och billigare sätt att kommunicera och transportera har tillsammans förändrat förutsättningarna för utveckling. Historiskt sett har sysselsättningen i periferiregioner varit beroende av tillverkningsindustrin, men idag finns tecken som tyder på att den lokala och regionala utvecklingen förstärks av lokalt förvärvade relationer som stödjer skapande och överföring av kunskaper. Förr vidtog den svenska regeringen mått och steg för att befrämja regional jämlikhet. Till exempel skapade man lockmedel för industrin och förflyttade statliga verk. De senaste decenniernas globala förändringar gör dessa metoder otillräckliga. Det övergripande syftet med den här avhandlingen är att bidra till den forskning vars syfte är att gynna regional ekonomisk utveckling och att öka förståelsen av och ge insikt i lokala ekonomiska utvecklingsprocesser som försöker möta dagens globala utmaningar för periferiregioner. Följande två sammanhängande frågor utforskas: 1) Vilka mekanismer påverkarlokaliseringen av ekonomiska aktiviteter och industriell politik i periferiregioner? 2) Hur visar sig dessa mekanismer i lokala utvecklingsprocesser i en periferiregion?I den här avhandlingen presenteras tre fallstudier som beskriver lokala utvecklingsprocesser i de två kommunerna Ljusdal och Söderhamn, båda belägna i Hälsingland. För att reflektera demekanismer som framkallat dem, kallas de tre fallstudierna för företagsstudien, policystudien och hybridstudien. / QC 20100616

Det här är en fallstudie av hur integrationspolitiska mål översätts tvärsektoriellt inom den regionala utvecklingspolitiken: i en rad olika sammanhang på nationell, regional och kommunal nivå. I studien beskrivs och analyseras hur idén om integration genom mainstreaming översätts till den regionala utvecklingspolitiken, för att fortsätta med en fördjupad analys av det regionala tillväxtpartnerskapet i Östergötland samt olika lokala kommunala tillväxtpartnerskap. Avslutningsvis jämförs resultaten från Östergötland med utvecklingen i landets övriga 20 regionala tillväxtpartnerskap. I avhandlingen visas att det fanns höga ambitioner om att genomföra en mainstreaming, bland annat med hjälp av nätverksstyrning. Så skedde också i olika målsättningstexter och beslut. Men när dessa målsättningar och beslut skulle omvandlas till aktiviteter, fullföljdes inte mainstreamingen. Man avstod helt från att göra något inriktat mot invandrare eller så genomfördes olika former av säråtgärder för invandrare. Avhandlingen visar dock på stora skillnader mellan olika aktörer och sammanhang. I vissa fall var man nära på att uppfylla kraven på en mainstreaming, i andra valde man att inte försöka. I avhandlingen visas också att hinder för genomförandet varit föreställningar om invandrare och invandrarfrågor som ej bidragande i ekonomiska tillväxtsammanhang, brist på styrningskompetens och resurser samt ett bristande kunnande om hur man skulle mainstreama integration. / This is a case study of how the Swedish migrant policy is cross-sectorally translated into the regional development policy area: at national, regional and municipal levels. The study describes and analyzes first how the idea of integration through mainstreaming is translated into the regional development policy. Secondly it conducts an in-depth analysis of the Regional Growth Partnership in the region of Östergötland as well as various municipality based growth partnerships. Finally, the results are compared with the development of other Regional Growth Partnerships (21 in total) in Sweden. The thesis shows that there were high ambitions for implementing the idea of mainstreaming integration, including the use of network governance. This also was reflected in other objectives and decisions. But when these goals and decisions were to be transformed into activities, the mainstreaming they were not completed. All actors refrained from implementing the proposed mainstreaming model; but some did implement various forms of side-stream measures for migrants. The thesis reveals large differences between different actors and contexts. In some cases, they were close to meeting the requirements of mainstreaming, in others they chose not to try at all. The thesis also shows that hindrances to translations were negatively related to the categorizations of immigrants, lack of management skills and resources and a lack of knowledge about how to mainstream integration of immigrants.

Hereby presented diploma thesis discusses the financial management of Czech regions (more accurately "higher-level territorial administrative units") focusing on regional development funding, particularly demonstrated by the example of the South Moravian Region. Through a study of regional financial management the regional budget's income and expenditure have been thoroughly examined, especially those governable by the regions themselves. During the analysis of the South Moravian Region financial system the main focus has been aimed at its regional funding policy outlined by the corresponding strategic documentation entitled South Moravian Region Development Plan. The actual support for regional development in South Moravian Region is financed by the region's budget and a special-purpose fund named Development Fund of South Moravian Region.

Submitted by Mauricio Brilhante Mendonça (mauricio_bm@hotmail.com) on 2013-03-21T13:10:19Z No. of bitstreams: 1 MAURICIO BRILHANTE MENDONÇA TESE CDAPG.pdf: 2107159 bytes, checksum: f169ebd0a723a4481356850ad3bb58c3 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Eliene Soares da Silva (eliene.silva@fgv.br) on 2013-03-21T13:19:56Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 MAURICIO BRILHANTE MENDONÇA TESE CDAPG.pdf: 2107159 bytes, checksum: f169ebd0a723a4481356850ad3bb58c3 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2013-03-21T13:57:58Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 MAURICIO BRILHANTE MENDONÇA TESE CDAPG.pdf: 2107159 bytes, checksum: f169ebd0a723a4481356850ad3bb58c3 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013-02-26 / The Manaus Free Trade Zone (ZFM) is the Union’s regional development policy for the Western Amazonia which is based on the concession of tax incentives to the productive capital. Its main results can be seen in the Industrial Pole of Manaus (PIM). Based on theoretic references on public policies, political decision process and on the framework of historical institutionalism, the thesis analyses three relevant decisions to the ZFM, as well as the public agencies where these decisions are made, characterizing the actors who influence them while also trying to understand the flow of public decisions in each one of the decision making processes. The first one of them refers to the two moments in which the decision of extending the ZFM’s applicability was being discussed in the National Congress, when interest groups were capable of joining their political forces to guarantee the constitutional status of the ZFM. The second one refers to the evaluation of the implantation, update, diversification or extension’s pleas of the industrial projects in the ZFM, on which the research provided understanding that once the technical-economical project is coherently presented, according to the established Basic Productive Process (PPB), the legislation and accompanied by the necessary documentation, the projects of whichever sector will not face any difficulty to be approved by the CAS. The need of a previous PPBs existence makes their establishment process a vital decision in the ZFM policies. This is the third process. PPB is the tool which has allowed the ZFM’s tax incentives’ policy’s governance through the regularization of processes and procedures which are to be abode by the companies which enjoy the benefits. The PPBs are established after negotiation among producers, suppliers and the Federal State, this last one being represented by MDIC, MCTI and SUFRAMA, under the GT-PPB’s management, whose operation is regulated by means of the Interministerial Ordinance MDIC/MCT n°170/2010. The PPB has been used by the State to establish counterparts to the companies which benefit from the ZFM’s tax incentives and also to allow the installation of productive sectors in that zone. It was noted that what is effectively valued is the risk of the PPB being published causing, therewith, the displacement of other productive plants from different regions in Brazil to the ZFM, situation which would turn into a negative decision. However, in cases in which the other federation units, cities or micro regions’ loss is not clear, there may be conflicts of political character, which leaves the decision to be made by negotiation levels and power above the GT-PPB. It is important to mention that the GT-PPB members understand that the ZFM is a public policy for the Western Amazonia, and also that they recognize the power that these members’ functions altogether have, each one with their own specialty, limits and objectives, functions which may influence the formulation and implementation of the industrial, science and technology and regional development policy in Brazil. It was possible to notice the participants’ effort with the current rules to promote improvements in these policies as well as the fact of how these teams are reflected by the lack of an effective national productive development project. / A Zona Franca de Manaus (ZFM) é a política de desenvolvimento regional da União para a Amazônia Ocidental baseada na concessão de incentivos fiscais ao capital produtivo, a qual tem no Polo Industrial de Manaus (PIM) o seu principal resultado. Partindo de referenciais teóricos sobre políticas públicas, processo de decisão política e do arcabouço do institucionalismo histórico, a tese analisa três decisões relevantes para a ZFM, para as quais se buscou identificar as agências públicas onde estas são tomadas, caracterizando os atores que nelas influenciam, ao passo que procurou compreender o fluxo de decisões públicas desses processos decisórios. A primeira delas refere-se aos dois momentos em que a decisão de prorrogar a vigência da ZFM estivera em discussão no Congresso Nacional, quando os grupos de interesse foram capazes de agregar força política para garantir o status constitucional da ZFM. A segunda refere-se à avaliação dos pleitos de implantação, atualização, diversificação ou ampliação de projetos industriais na ZFM, sobre a qual a pesquisa proporcionou o entendimento de que uma vez apresentado o projeto técnico-econômico de forma coerente, de acordo com o Processo Produtivo Básico (PPB) estabelecido, com a legislação e acompanhado da documentação necessária, os projetos de qualquer que seja o setor não enfrentam dificuldades de aprovação no CAS. A necessidade da existência prévia de PPBs torna o processo de estabelecimento destes uma decisão fundamental na política da ZFM. Esse é o terceiro processo. O PPB é a ferramenta que tem permitido a governança da política de incentivos fiscais da ZFM, através da regulação de processos e procedimentos cumpridos pelas empresas que usufruem dos benefícios. Os PPBs são estabelecidos após negociação entre produtores, fornecedores e o Estado brasileiro, sendo este representado pelo MDIC, MCTI e SUFRAMA, sob a gestão do GT-PPB, cujo funcionamento é regulamentado pela Portaria Interministerial MDIC/MCT n°170/2010. O PPB vem sendo utilizado pelo Estado para estabelecer contrapartidas às empresas beneficiárias dos incentivos fiscais da ZFM e para permitir instalação de setores produtivos naquela zona. Notou-se que o efetivamente valorado é o risco de o PPB, ao ser publicado, causar deslocamento de plantas produtivas de outras regiões do Brasil para a ZFM, situação que leva ao indeferimento. Contudo, em situações nas quais não é claro o prejuízo para outras unidades da federação, cidades ou microrregiões, pode haver conflitos de caráter político, alçando a decisão para níveis de negociação e de poder acima do GT-PPB. Destaca-se o entendimento dos membros do GT-PPB de que a ZFM é uma política pública da União para a Amazônia Ocidental e de reconhecerem o poder que, em conjunto, têm suas funções, por meio das quais, cada um com sua especialidade, limites e objetivos, pode influenciar por dentro do Estado brasileiro na elaboração e implementação da política industrial, de ciência e tecnologia e de desenvolvimento regional. Foi possível perceber o esforço dos participantes para, com as regras atuais, promoverem melhorias nessas políticas e como se reflete nessas equipes a falta de um efetivo projeto de desenvolvimento produtivo nacional.