OECD Territorial Reviews

Description

"The OECD territorial review of Småland-Blekinge presents an overview of recent trends, regional policies and governance arrangements of this region that is made up of four counties in South-East Sweden: Jönköping,  Kronoberg, Kalmar and Blekinge. The challenges include the need to facilitate a shift from the region’s historic specialisation in medium-low and low technology manufacturing towards more knowledge-intensive activities. This will require addressing the supply of human capital, improving connectivity and enhancing the attractiveness of the region. A regionalisation reform is now under discussion in Sweden with potential implications for Småland-Blekinge. Whatever the future administrative structure of Småland-Blekinge, the effectiveness of regional development policies and public service delivery will be directly related to strengthened interaction and co-ordination arrangements among the numerous actors and administrative units involved."

Description

"OECD's Territorial Review of Canada. It finds that Canada is composed of three macroregions: a southern ribbon with all the important metropolitan areas, a zone of rural and non-metropolitan adjacent regions and a sub-continent of remote northern territories. Disparities between these macroregions persist and may even be growing. Opportunities for growth are  lost because of these imbalances and also because specific regional advantages are not fully tapped. In many regions, weak local governance is hindering the emergence of local grass-roots projects, diffusion of R&D results to SMEs is slow and dialogue between higher education institutions and firms is poor. This report underlines the need for federal agencies and sectoral departments to continuously assess the consistency of their policies with regard to the three macroregions in order to enhance territorial cohesion and better tailor programmes to local conditions. More federal involvement in metropolitan issues notably through negotiated planning could help to institutionalise and strengthen urban policies. This report also emphasises the significant overhauling of rural policies that took place recently. It underlines that in certain areas such as amenities a strategic approach is still to be defined. Resolving governance issues is a priority in the north."

Subjects

Series Statement

• OECD Territorial Reviews

Other Editions

• OECD Territorial Reviews: Canada 2002[electronic resource] /OECD Publishing2002-01-01
• OECD Territorial Reviews[electronic resource] /OECD Publishing2011-01-01
• OECD Territorial Reviews[electronic resource] /OECD Publishing2012-01-01