1. Hradec Kralove, 24th March 2003
LORIS CONFERENCE Local Authorities, subsidiarity and SMEs competitiveness
Arco – Manuel GIGOT
Hradec Kralove, 24th March 2003

2. principle of subsidiarity
Introduction
New services
from Local/Regional Authorities
to their socio-economic environment
Application of the
principle of subsidiarity
For SMEs competitiveness relies more and more often on co-opetition models
Competitive situation between regions
to develop themselves and/or attract new industries

3. Therefore the real question is:
E-governement is currently largely addressed ….
…. but it very often means to use ICT to transform the way of delivering the classical services of local/regional authorities…
…. and in most of cases do not represent a sufficient vector to significantly improve support to competitiveness .
Therefore the real question is:
considering this new mission, are local/regional authorities ready to develop new services, which often means new skills ?

4. Why should Local/regional authorities develop these services ?
When considering SMEs, the investment needed to access efficient ICT-based services can be affordable and even valuable only in a co-opetition model.
One of the best model to create co-opetition plateforms is to combine efforts of local/regional authorities and of interest communities.

5. Why Local/regional authorities are the relevant actors
Because support to competitiveness is more and more often included in their mission
Because they represent most of the time coherent geographic / sectorial communities
Because they can better face the necessary investments while SMEs and their representatives don’t
Because they can benefit of inter-sectorial economy of scale.

6. Why combining local /regional authorites and communities of interest ?
Because before to offer individual relevant services, local/regional authorities need knowledge and expertise on sectorial issues
Because sectorial representatives are ideal interfaces between each single final user and authorities
Because it guarantees the neutrality of the services offered

7. Combining local /regional authorites and communities of interest
Real challenge:
the implementation of efficient public/private partnerships to develop high-quality services

8. Example
In the context of globalization, information has become one of the most important factor of competitiveness
A real business intelligence service is absolultely unafordable for most of the SMEs
Our model could result in the following:

9. Example Professional association Local/regional authorities
New business intelligence ICT-based plateform to be provided to SMEs
Optional: the creation of common technical assistance services (business reengeneering, training, etc.)
Investments in a highly efficient platform
(hardware, software, research)
Knowledge on content
Dissemination skills
Interface with single companies means and needs

10. Conclusion New mission = new services
Efficient public/private partnership
New skills
Actors of co-opetition plateforms