Benchmarking regional competitiveness

A conference entitled "Benchmarking of a region" will be held in Brussels, Belgium, on 29 June 1998. The aim of the conference is to present the results of a project carried out for local government in the East and West Midlands of England.

The aims of the project were to develop a methodology for benchmarking regional competitiveness, and to establish a network of European regions to work together to transfer best practice on measures promoting competitiveness. This follows up on the Commission communication "Benchmarking the competitiveness of European industry", issued in 1996, which recommended that benchmarking should be developed as a policy tool to help improve the performance of European industrial and regional competitiveness.

The main outcomes of the project include:

- An analysis of the regions selected for the project;
- The development of a methodology for measuring regional competitiveness;
- A comparative assessment of the core regions and their strategies for competitiveness;
- Statistical benchmarking using the UK "Regional competitiveness indicators" and other measures;
- Analysis of Dun and Bradstreet data on company and sector level competitiveness;
- Identification of over 40 best practice examples from the core regions.

The conference will present the following:

- Summary of the project's aims and objectives;
- The international benchmarking study: Methodology and key results;
- Innovation discussion led by a representative of the Alsace region, France;
- Skills discussion led by a representative of the Nordrhein-Westfalen region, Germany;
- Productivity discussion led by a representative of the Piemonte region, Italy;
- Discussion on cross-cutting aspects;
- Brainstorming session on how to carry the project forward.
For further information, please contact:

European Association of Development Agencies
12 avenue des Arts
Boîte 7
B-1210 Brussels
Tel. +32-2-2184313; Fax +32-2-2184583