The Good Oil by Rod Brown*
The biggest talking point in Canberra is the gurgling sound of the Aussie dollar and how the Howard Government will deal with looming recession. But why wait for the Commonwealth to show the way? There is much that can be done at a grassroots level, and Local Government can be a key player.
It was therefore good to see four Australians – Rodin Genoff (Playford City Council), Paquita Lamacraft (Hepburn Shire Council), Hugh Forde (Business Vision 2010, SA) and Darren Cleland (Cairns Region Economic Development Corporation) – among the 900 attending the World Congress on Clusters in Paris in January.
The Congress was organised by the OECD and DATAR (the French planning agency). Its success was assured by the OECD’s continued championing of clustering concepts to address various aspects of market failure, viz. lack of information, managerial myopia, under provision of public goods and coordination failure.
Australia’s contribution
The Australians tabled a specially prepared report ‘Clusters, Innovation & Investment’ at the Congress. It summarises the key issues in clustering from an antipodean perspective, and identifies the industry clusters in Australia and New Zealand to foster collaboration within our own region and with clusters elsewhere.
The rationale is that people and organisations involved in cluster agendas have innate collaborative tendencies. By linking such people, information should flow more readily and thereby facilitate the ‘connectivity’ that is so vital for the commercialising R&D and attracting investment.
While this is a difficult area, there is prima facie evidence that our fragmented industry structure, the distances between population centres, the three tier system of government, and ‘she’ll be right’ attitudes do, in fact, cause some form of market failure.
An associated school of thought contends that the lack of major threats to Australian society has meant that systematic collaboration has never been a regular feature.
The situation may be magnified by our competitive instincts – our fanatical approach to sports, the competition between government agencies, and the tendency for most Australian companies to move within relatively small circles.
Finding Common Ground
Another reason for linking cluster agendas is because the players in different regions and/or countries are often not in direct competition. They may therefore find common ground and build long term foundations for international trade and investment.
For example, the economic circumstances of Newcastle (UK) and its Australian namesake are very similar, and both cities have robust cluster agendas underway and well credentialled people to drive them.
Similarly, the horticulture agendas in Brazil and central America have similarities with those in Australia – supply chain development to the major international markets, fruit quality, fruit preservation, post harvest handling, uptake of improved irrigation techniques and pest control.
Could joint problem solving serve as the basis for international collaboration? On the home front, tourism clusters in Queensland are more than willing to share experiences with tourism clusters in other States and New Zealand.
The third area of potential is the building of trust. Organisations will only collaborate if some basic level of trust exists. As trust and confidence grows, the commercial relationship is deepened. This is critically important in the area of R&D collaboration, where intellectual property issues are uppermost in both parties’ minds.
Space prevents a full profile on Australia’s clusters.
Clusters Asia Pacific Inc.
A new association called Clusters Asia Pacific Inc. has been formed. It is currently a network of 25 organisations – local Councils, research groups, companies, industry associations, government agencies – with a common interest in developing clusters, and in sharing knowledge with like-minded groups in the Asia Pacific region and beyond.
We are proud that the OECD and UNIDO are associate members.
The co chairs are Professor Julian Lowe, Dean of the School of Business at Ballarat University, and the afore mentioned Rodin Genoff. I am the part time Executive Director. We have developed links with organisations in 25 countries, including Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Denmark, England, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Northern Ireland, Scotland, Spain, Sweden, USA and Wales.
While our work delves into many public policy issues, and goes well beyond the individual interests of members, we have operated without any government support or external sponsorship. We are now in expansion mode, so if your Council is interested in joining, please contact me for further information.
Clusters Asia Pacific circulates a monthly newsletter, free of charge, to members and friends.
* Rod Brown’s Canberra based consultancy group, Australian Project Developments Pty Ltd, specialises in industry/regional development and government liaison. For further information telephone (02) 6231 7261 or email apd@orac.net.au
