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PMR's Editorial philosophy:
"It is only by standing on the shoulders of
giants that I have been able to see further."
Sir Isaac Newton,
1642–1727
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Provinces & Countries – Gauteng Update
Competitive regionalism
Successful city-regions have embraced the reality that they will need to compete with other regions in the world economy. They acknowledge that they need to promote complementarity rather than competition within their system of cities and towns. While welcoming an entrepreneurial approach promoting investment, they also recognise the dangers in municipalities competing individually. This can lead to waste and duplication of public resources, and promotion of growth at the expense of another locality. At the extreme, this can lead to a ‘race to the bottom’ as cities vie with each other to offer increased financial incentives, or abandon planning or land use regulations, to attract investment.
‘Competitive regionalism’ is an alternative approach to such individualism, involving networks of public private and civil society bodies that work with higher tiers of the state to focus their economic development efforts for the benefit of the region as a whole. It recognises that certain development challenges – including strategic economic planning, research and development, transport and communications infrastructure, coherent investment planning by state-owned enterprises – can best be tacked with the cooperation of neighbouring jurisdictions and Government structure.
If regions want to remain competitive in this race among cities, ‘to act like competitive business units and to promote the well-being their residents, they must consciously define their niches in a changing world marketplace. To secure and protect such niches, regions must marshal unprecedented cooperation among market, state and civil society actors to develop better skills, more attractive business climates and more’.
There are numerous international examples of such approaches. These include the Greater Regional Development Agency of seven municipalities in Sao Paolo State and the pacific Northwest Economic Region between the US and Canada, built on cooperation between the cities of Seattle and Vancouver.
Effective regional cooperative networks build up strong economic dynamic and representative institutional capacity; share a political, territorial or social cohesion; and actively promote relationships of commitment and trust.
With this in mind, the lesson for Gauteng is relatively simple – for our city to compete better externally, we must cooperate internally.
Web: gautengonline.gov.za
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