The New Swiss Regional Policy (NRP) & knowledge management by regiosuisse, the Swiss network unit for regional development August 2010

Content 1.The New Swiss Regional Policy (NRP): Objectives and strategies 2.What is regiosuisse? 3.How is regiosuisse organized? 4.What does regiosuisse do? 5.Products and services of regiosuisse 2

3 1. NRP: Objectives and strategies ImprovePromoteCreateReduce Employment Regional disparities Competitive- ness Entrepreneurship Innovation Value chains The Swiss federal government’s regional policy is designed to help rural, mountainous and border areas to implement their development programs:

1. NRP: Most important features Adjustment to the globalised economy: Regional policy helps rural areas to adjust to the globalised economy. Enhance export capacity: Regional policy supports export-oriented value creation systems. Laws of the market: Regional policy takes account of the laws of the market. Focus on geographical and functional centres: The regional centres are the development drivers. 4

5 Export-oriented activities Strengthen those economic activities that create value and increase exports out of the region Reduce barriers to innovation and entrepreneurship Active support of innovative and entrepreneurial actors Region Local economy Intraregional multiplicator Exports (revenues) Purchase of local products Imports (expenses) 1. NRP: The core concept: enhance the regions export capacity

1. NRP: Geographical area of application 6

1. NRP: Financing mechanism 7 Regional Development Fund stock ≈ 0.8 billion € Amortisation & interest Addition deposits 2008–2015  150 mio. € Non-repayable grants  26 mio. € p. a. Repayable loans  32 mio. € p. a.

8 Pillar 3: expertise for regional policy and the people involved in it; supports the implementation of pillars 1 and 2 1. NRP: The three pillars of Swiss regional policy Pillar 1: Increasing the economic strength of the regions trough direct promotion of initiatives, projects, programmes and regional development agencies Pillar 2: Horizontal co-ordination with other federal agencies that are concerned with the needs of rural areas such as policies on innovation, education, agriculture, the environment, energy, tourism and SME Pillar 3: Expertise on regional policy and the people involved in it; supports the implementation of pillars 1 and 2

1.NRP: Pillar 1: Multi-year programme 2008–15 Thematic Promotion PrioritiesGeographic Promotion Priorities knowhow-transfer in export-oriented value creation systems rural areas incl. border regions (Jura, selectively in the alps) structural change in tourism mountainous areas and lakes regions market oriented educational and health systems rural areas potentials of the energy sectoralps, selectively in other regions exploration of natural resources sparsely populated areas in the midlands, Jura and alps increased value added on agriculture in open markets mainly in agricultural rural areas 9

10 1. NRP: Pillar 1: Direct promotion of initiatives, projects and programmes Step 1: The canton defines an implementation programme The federal government does not hand out cash to the cantons on the principle of equal share for all. No support without innovative ideas and compelling concepts. Step 2: The federal government and the canton conclude a programme agreement The federal government assesses the canton’s proposed strategy. Both parties sign a joint programme agreement. Step 3: The canton implements its strategy The contractually agreed objectives and milestones are the cornerstones of the collaboration.  One programme for each canton! (23)

11 1.NRP: Pillar 1: Contracted objectives 2008–2011

1. NRP in Switzerland: Pillar 3: Expertise 12

3. What is regiosuisse? …is the Swiss network unit for regional development. …was launched at the beginning of 2008 by the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO), Department Regional and Spatial Planning Policy, in order to accompany the New Regional Policy. regiosuisse… 13

4. How is regiosuisse organized? PLANVAL AG as general contractor: regiosuisse was established and is managed by PLANVAL AG; Managing regiosuisse, PLANVAL contracts with different Swiss and international offices. The strategically control of regiosuisse is carried out by the SECO. 14

5. What does regiosuisse do? to support people involved in regional policy and regional development with a systematic, practice-oriented knowledge-management-system. to offer various services so that knowledge about the NRP and regional development can be acquired, exchanged and enhanced. to facilitate networking and the mutual exchange of knowledge within the «regional development community». The main tasks of regiosuisse are… 15

The Internet portal for regional development, 6. Varieties of our products and services 16

regiosuisse-Hotline:

«Big events» 18

«regioS» – the trilingual magazine for regional development 19

Training programs in regional management and regional development 20

Knowledge Communities of regiosuisse (multilingual CoP‘s and CoI‘s, different subjects in regional development) 21

Thank you for your attention! For enquiries and future partnership please contact us. 22