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Address of H.E. Ambassador Andrej Rant to the members of the OECD Territorial
Development Policy Committee at its 25th session, June 15, 2011 on the occasion of
Slovenian Territorial Review examination
Mr. president, members, ladies and gentlemen!
The title of today's session, “Can a place-based approach enhance the efficiency of public
policies”, fits well into the 50th Anniversary framework and into the conclusions of the
ministerial in May. Better policies for better lives have to be implemented with the support of
and in interaction with local communities. Restoring trust begins with creation of jobs where
people live. Employment, Entrepreneurship, Education, Environment and Equality, the “E”
policy priorities, are not a matter of top down activity only. They have to reflect also bottom
up flexibility and inclusiveness.
OECD has done a lot in this domain, launching new initiatives recently to better assess the
local development capacity, to deepen its knowledge about the accountability and flexibility
of local labor markets and to improve statistics available. The multidimensionality of regional
development represents a challenge in collecting comparable data across OECD Member
States. The OECD publication “Regions at glance 2011” is an important contribution to find
answers on pertinent questions and to present valid comparisons of achievements between
different OECD Member States. If we would like to conceive good territorial policies, we
have to know more about drivers of competitiveness in the regions, about regional inclusion
and access to quality services by citizens and about environmental sustainability of regional
development. Almost 50% of GDP growth and job creation in the OECD area in recent years,
according to the findings in this OECD publication, has to be attributed to only 10% of OECD
regions. Inevitable concentration of economic power or huge potential for future growth ?
According to the same source, in the past 15 years regional differences in unemployment rates
have been persistently around two times higher than differences among OECD countries. But
regions which invested in a qualified human capital and raised productivity in agriculture and
public sector have been better off than the others.
A pilot project on OECD Local Development Capacity Index, incorporating elements to
measure employment and skills development, entrepreneurship, enterprise creation and
growth, social inclusion for all groups of the population, reflecting local strategies and
implementation of national policies will certainly contribute to better integrated assessment of
local development capacities.
OECD Centre for entrepreneurship, SMEs and local development recently prepared an issue
paper on Accountability and Flexibility in Labor Market policy. It payed attention to the link
between regional flexibility and accountability. Certain degree of regional flexibility is a must
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given the local diversities in labor market, adaptability needs and complexity which emerges
locally. Complexity emphasizes the need for accountability. At the local level different policy
areas join together. That requires sufficient technical, organizational and managerial local
capacities to deal with the problems. Often, local communities are lacking them. On the other
hand, central government has to monitor and take care of the implementation of national
policies. Finding the right balance between the freedom of local action and the need of
common policy implementation is often difficult. If the right balance is found, place-based
approach becomes an important driver of efficiency of public policy. That is why the
exchange of experience among OECD Member States about territorial issues is so important.
Sharing of knowledge and experience is especially important for new Members States.
By coincidence the accession of Slovenia to the OECD is accompanied from the beginning
with reviews which go to the heart of its structural endeavors to reshape its economy and
society in order to adjust to global changes. “Going structural” is accompanied with “going
social”. Issues of territorial development are linked to both. Besides the territorial review, a
discussion on Economic Review took place in December 2010 and we are in the middle of
examination of public governance, issue of great importance also in the territorial
development. Membership in the OECD early bears very useful fruit.
Therefore, Slovenia is pleased to serve on today’s Committee session as a case study for
deeper discussion on place-based efficiency of public policies and on regional contribution to
competitiveness. It comes at the right time. We look forward to a lively debate expecting
enrichment of our knowledge and helping us to check our approaches and possibly upgrade
them with better solutions.
Thank you.
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