The systemic competitiveness model and the relevance of the promotion of productive clusters as a way to achieve local development

Abstract

The systemic competitiveness model introduced in some European countries (such as Germany) in order to promote regional and local development in a context of globalization since the 1980s and 1990s, is today one of the most appropriate theoretical references for boosting the structures of local and regional economies in developing countries.

The different dimensions of action of the economic, political and social agents that it postulates allow us to recognize local and regional productive particularities in order to boost their competitiveness from a global and systemic perspective. It should be noted that the importance of this theoretical-methodological approach provides a way out of the recession faced by the country's economic sectors by strengthening production chains through the mechanism for promoting local and regional clusters, based on successful cases in other parts of the world, both in developed and developing countries. This is why the United Nations Development Programme (undp) has been promoting such schemes since the 1980s, in order to encourage the productivity and competitiveness of productive factors in these environments, particularly in those specific areas of developing countries where there are circumstances that, in one way or another, have allowed the incipient growth of productive activities -manufacturing, trade and services- on a small and medium scale.

We start from the premise that, although there is knowledge of this paradigm on the part of some of the authorities and regional and local agents in our country, the lack of understanding and ignorance of most state governments of this approach, leads them to discard such policies in their programs for promoting development and business expansion, respectively. Some of the questions that arise in this regard are: Is it pertinent to promote systemic competitiveness and clusters as a means of local development? Are business collaboration and association strategies viable at the regional and local levels? Is it possible to promote forms of collective and self-managed participation at the micro-enterprise level? Will inter-enterprise distrust continue to prevail in their daily operational interrelations among MSMEs and, therefore, the low levels of productivity, quality and innovation that prevail?

The answer to these questions has to do with the validity of the argument, which even transcends the local and regional spheres, that it is better to compete as a group than in isolation, as well as the urgent need to begin to change the traditional way of thinking and operating of small Mexican businessmen in general, and of Jalisco in particular. In this regard, the facts show that such a perspective seems to have been initiated -at least as a local development policy in the state from 1994 to 2000-; however, it is noteworthy that this type of policy has not been given due continuity during the present PAN administration in the 2001-2007 period, despite some incipient positive results obtained by the last administration in the state in this regard.