Inter-municipal cooperation for Strategic Steering of SME-oriented Location Development in the Alpine Space

• AS priority area: Competitiveness and Attractiveness
• Duration: 01/07/2009 - 30/06/2012
• Project webpage
• Project on the website of the Alpine Space Programme

• Lead partner: University of Applied Sciences Western Switzerland Valais, Institute Economics and Tourisme (CH) Contact person: Nicolas Deletroz, Tel.: +41 27 606 90 03, nicolas.deletroz[at]hevs.ch
• Regional development Vorarlberg (AT) Contact person: Peter Steurer, Tel.: +43 (0)5579 7171-43, peter.steurer[at]telesis.eu
• Canton of Valais Economic Development Office (CH) Contact person: Brigitte Pitteloud, Tel.: +41 27 60 672 30, brigitte.pitteloud[at]admin.vs.ch
• Swiss Association for Services to Regions and Communes (CH) Contact person: François Parvex, Tel.: +41 78 654 48 62, parvex[at]serec.ch
• Bosch & Partner GmbH (DE) Contact person: Konstanze Schönthaler, Tel.: +49 (0)8923555852, k.schoenthaler[at]boschpartner.de
• City of Sonthofen (DE) Contact person: Fritz Weidlich, Tel.: +49 (0)8321 615 279, fritz.weidlich[at]sonthofen.de
• Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Lyon (ERDF Lead Partner) (FR) Contact person: Claire Delsuc, Tel.: + 33 (0)4 72 40 56 92, delsuc[at]lyon.cci.fr, Tel.: + 33 (0)4 72 40 56 92
• European Academy of Bolzano/Bozen, Institute for Regional Development and Location Management (IT) Contact person: Thomas Philipp Streifeneder and Miriam Laura Weiß. Tel.: +39 0471 055 315, thomas.streifeneder[at]eurac.edu; miriam.weiss[at]eurac.edu.
• Local Development Agency Langhe Monferrato Roero - European project department (IT) Contact person: Sonia Abluton, Tel.: +39 0141 532516, sonia[at]lamoro.it
• Ministry for the Environment, Land and Sea (IT) Contact person: Paolo Angelini, Tel.: +39 06 57228154, angelini.paolo[at]minambiente.it
• BSC, Business Support Centre L.t.d., Kranj (SL) Contact person: Helena Cvenkel, Tel.: +386 4 281 72 39, helena.cvenkel[at]bsc-kranj.si

“Communities in the Alps often face similar problems with regards to commercial development: They have hardly any land available for commercial site development due to natural restrictions and the few remaining areas are highly competed for by diverse utilization demands. So far, the municipalities developed commercial areas individually and in a rather uncoordinated way. The Commercial Location Development concept perused by COMUNIS offers municipalities the chance to steer their commercial development in a forward-looking way by cooperating with other municipalities. The aim is to retain businesses in the region or to generate the conditions to release new investments, to create or attract new businesses.” (Source:www.alpine-space.eu/projects/projects/detail/COMUNIS/show/)

• Urban development and increasing land take pose a risk
• Rural areas need to cooperate and complement each other
• Rural-urban partnership requires vital networks and processes

• territorial development
• knowledge transfer
• urban-rural partnership
• SME support and networks
• connectivity

• Territorial cohesion through balanced social and economic development
• Reducing environmental damage
• peri-alpine relationship

Results of a project can be differentiated in outputs, outcomes and impacts of an intervention. Source:OECD Glossary of Key Terms in Evaluation and Results Based Management.

Results which are directly or indirectly suitable or applicable for practitioners / politicians and civil servants / administration:

• With the guidelines a possibility is given to hand to the municipalities to control and manage their commercial development in a future-orientated and strategic way - jointly with other municipalities. Therefore diverse profiles within the public administrations (civil servants, politicians, counsalting practitioners) could find the results suitable for further applications. Results provide success factors, best practices and practical examples for implementing inter-municipal CLD

Which of the project results are usable for which aspect of SSD and which are the most relevant for practitioners / politicians and civil servants / administration?

• Concept and approach of Commercial Location Develoment (CLD) described in the guidelines offering options for action, tools and instruments as well as implementations examples about actual mangament of land resources and spatial planning. Analysis of tool description, final pulication. Section 2.3 provide particularly relevant to SSD for practioners as it describes models for local aùuthorities to adopt for addressing challenges in the field of commerce, trade and industry by taking a proactive and comprehensive approach at inter-municipal level. The extensive description of available options should help municipalities to look at their situation and development from a broad perspective. The results determing how municipalities can engage jointly with other municipalities and which steps they need to take to realize inter-municipal CLD is set out provide usueful information relevant for SSD. All the outputs summarised in this publication provide the working steps of the joint process, giving municipalites a hand to jointly steer their commercial/industrial development in a strategic and future-oriented way.

Are there results which need further steps to be useful for practitioners / politicians and civil servants / administration?

Which kinds of stakeholders have been involved, how have their competences been used in the project and are there options for a better implementation?

• Public and private agencies for commercial promotion and public services provision (association, public agencies, networks, cooperatives) have been presented as case model of actions in pilot regions areas. The partnership brought together local, regional, and national entities belonging both to the private and to the public sector: institutions of higher education, regional development agencies as well as state bodies, private research institutions and municipal administrations. Being able to mobilize a broad range of skills covering both the field of theoretical knowledge and the field of practical experience played a crucial role for the acceptance and implementation of the project

Are the results (tool, method, indicator, recommendation) directly or indirectly addressing the strategic objectives for the Alpine Space?

• Tools are address directly AS objective in particular those which aim to increase commercial attractiveness of mountain areas through intermunicipal cooperation on key resource use and joint public service provision.

What could be long-term outcomes of this project? If none, why low impact? Why high impact? What is needed to achieve outcomes in the long-run?

• Strengthen intermunicipal cooperation for more efficient service provision, resource use and enhance commercial regional attractiveness. Strenghten cooperation in common spatial planning activities.

Unlike project outputs, outcomes and results cannot be described in a standardised way. Therefore, they are listed as free text:

Further Synergies
Potential synergies and spillovers with neighboor pilot areas regions.
Achievements that could be further implemented
Results transferability to similar regions in terms of socio-economic framework conditions. Examples of other potential case study regions or particularly suitable regions for implementing project findings.
Remaining gaps
Broader information and analysis on inter-municipal legislation in case study regions/countries. Deeper insight on legislative/legal prerequisites.
Emerging contradictions
none

• COMUNIS outputs on the official website of the project
• COMUNIS outputs on the website of the Alpine Space Programme

• Environmental assessment
• Governance process