Tula Region: Launch of Cluster Policy
On 23 April, at a coordination meeting chaired by the region’s governor Vladimir Gruzdev, was presented draft Strategy of Socio-Economic Development of the Tula Region until 2030, prepared by the HSE with overall coordination bythe Institute of Public Administration and Municipal Management. The two most important elements of the strategy – “Strategy for Innovation Development of the Region” and “Concept of the Regional Cluster Policy” – were developed by the ISSEK experts.
The Tula Region has a high potential for strengthening clusterisation processes: there’s a significant concentration of organisations and enterprises in industries related to each other, not only in the region, but within the borders of the Tula-Novomoskovsk agglomeration; the region has potential cluster-forming centres (large anchor companies and prominent regional universities); there are attractive investment areas; certain initiatives on building production facilities are emerging, which would contribute to lengthening the value-added chains. The regional authorities are willing to start dialogues with potential participants of clusters, and promote cooperation links in the regional business environment. Currently industrial development strategies until 2030 are being developed in the Tula Region, with participation of leading representatives of the business and research communities, which among other things include proposals on building technology chains.
In the course of preparing the Strategy for the Region’s Socio-Economic Development, the HSE ISSEK’s expert have built a “map” of 15 high-priority and 15 potential (emerging) clusters in the Tula Region. In these two groups, they’ve selected 12 clusters with significant innovation potential. It’s proposed to put the accent on supporting industrial clusters in such important to the regional economy industries as oil and gas refinery, engineering, defence industry complex, metallurgy, light and food industries, agricultural, recreational and tourist clusters. The HSE experts analysed the trends in the relevant internal and external markets for each of the priority clusters, and prepared recommendations to involve leading universities and research organisations into projects on establishing regional research centres in biotechnology, coal processing, extraction of rare, dispersed and noble metals, environment safety technologies. The Tula Regional Cluster Development Centre’s team is supposed to become the main conductor of the cluster policy.
In the course of preparing the regional socio-economic development strategy and shaping its cluster policy, a lot of attention was paid to coordinating cluster projects with other strategic documents regulating investment, innovation policies and territorial planning in the region, specifically the Strategy of the Region’s Innovation Development.
As early as at the stage of designing the approach to promoting development of clusters in the Tula Region, key investment projects were identified. For most of them budgets were defined, and recommendations on their localisation prepared; specifically, several investment projects for regional clusters were planned for implementation in industrial parks (whose borders and possible specialisation of their residents are already largely known). The Tula Region clusters will serve as bases for projects aimed at completing necessary innovation infrastructure, focusing regional competencies in the innovation sphere. Cluster cooperation vectors were also outlined (including clusters in the neighbouring regions, e.g. the automobile industry cluster in the Kaluga Region).
Building a cluster policy toolkit, launching joint intra-cluster projects promotes overall integration of the Tula Region’s economy and strengthens its innovation “ecosystem”. The set of strategies developed by the HSE will arm the regional authorities (who only relatively recently have made cluster approach to managing the region’s economic development a priority) with knowledge of how to avoid possible mistakes in implementing a cluster policy. These documents are proving their usefulness even now: just discussing them leads to consolidation of the expert and business communities, and promotes cooperation between potential agents of the regional economy’s clusterisation.
Material composed by Vassily Abashkin