Local Economic Development The driving force of the CDS

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Local Economic DevelopmentThe driving force of
the CDS

• Ahmed Eiweida
• Senior Urban Management Specialist
• World Bank
• Damascus, January 30, 2005

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First-What Is City Development Strategy (CDS)?

• CDS is an action plan for equitable growth in
  cities, developed and sustained through
  participation, to improve the quality of life for
  all citizens.
• The goals of a CDS include a collective city
  vision and action plan aimed at
• A) improving urban governance and management,
• B) local economic development, and
• C) systematic and sustained reductions in urban
  poverty.

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What is Local Economic Development (LED)?

• LED is to build up the economic capacity of a
  local area to improve its economic future and the
  quality of life for all.
• It is a process by which public, business and
  non-governmental sector partners work
  collectively to create better conditions for
  economic growth and employment generation.

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Local Economic Developmentincreasing investment
to expand employment and services

• identifying ways of improving the citys overall
  economic performance and efficiency (most
  importantly, business climate)
• promoting competitiveness of the city in
  regional, national, and possibly international,
  contexts
• promoting broad-based employment generation that
  includes the informal sector and
• involving the private sector in conceiving the
  development strategy, and securing their
  increased involvement, investment, and defining
  the supportive role of central government.

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Local Economic Developmentincreasing investment
to expand employment and services

• Building on each citys competitive advantages,
  LED strategy aims at
• providing a competitive local business
  environment
• stimulating growth of local firms
• further developing workforce
• making whole business environments favorable
• facilitating an economically-linked business
  clusters
• leveraging private sector investments for public
  good and
• enhancing public/private partnerships and soft
  infrastructure investments (e.g. human resource
  development, regulatory rationalization).

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How To Plan for Local Economic Development?

• Sequencing of preparing LED Action Plan
• 1. Understand your baseline status Review local
  government budget, obstacles to growth and
  investment, how priorities are selected, how
  allocations and appropriations are made, how
  revenue growth is promoted and the poor are
  assisted.
• 2. Carry out a city competitiveness assessment
  and SWOT Analysis
• Strengths/local assets (university, competitive
  wage rates, skilled workforce, strong
  transportation network, safe locality)
• Weaknesses/obstacles to growth (worsening
  poverty, complex regulatory procedures,
  inadequate infrastructure, limited access to
  credit)
• Opportunities/favorable exogenous (technological
  change, opening new local competitive advantages,
  new international trade arrangements, expanding
  markets) and
• Threats/unfavorable exogenous (downsizing of
  global business resulting in local plant closure,
  demographic changes).
• 3. Prepare an action-plan for equitable growth
  and employment generation, developed and
  sustained through participation.

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Process of Preparing an LED

• LED team needs to define stakeholders, how to
  bring them in, establish and maintain a dynamic
  participatory entrepreneurial culture.
• LED methodology consists of five stages
• - Vision Stakeholders consensus-building on the
  preferred economic future of the community (do
  this after understanding competitiveness and
  SWOT).
• - Goals based on the overall vision and specify
  desired outcomes of the economic planning
  process.
• - Objectives set the performance standards and
  target activities for development.
• - Programs set out approaches to achieving
  realistic economic development goals.
• - Action Plans define achievable program
  components, prioritized activities, establish
  costs and responsibilities.

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Improving Business ClimateIts all about
building trust with the private sector

• The most important and effective LED step is to
  improve the regulatory processes and procedures
  to which businesses are subjected by the
  municipality itself.
• A survey of most municipalities would reveal a
  number of complex, poorly managed, expensive and
  unnecessary business registration systems. By
  reducing these, a municipality can quickly
  improve its local investment climate.

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Improving Business ClimateIts all about
building trust with the private sector

• LED Action Plan often includes a Business Climate
  Program that aims to simplify burdensome rules
  and bureaucratic procedures of starting, owning,
  operating and managing a business. But, it is
  also about marketing and promotion.
• Land, Property and Development Planning
• Infrastructure Provision and Maintenance
• Business Registration and Licensing
• Encouraging Local Business Standards
• Internal Operations and Procedures
• Investment Promotion and Marketing.

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