Objectives

Aims on the methodological level

1. Developing a well-defined integrative and cooperative strategy for Commercial Location Development (CLD);
2. enhancing inter-municipal and intra-territorial cooperation in order to overcome individualistic attempts of problems solution on the level of single municipalities; CLD comprises strategies and tools aiming at supporting and stimulating commercial AND industrial development;
3. elaborating broadly adaptable guidelines to apply this strategy;
4. providing practical instruments for the assessment of the local and regional demand for and the steering of commercial development with particular focus on diversification and efficiency of economic activities, environmental and social concerns, human and cultural capital;
5. gaining concrete experiences of strategic steering of CLD on the inter-municipal / intra-territorial level by working closely together with selected pilot regions;
6. establishing a transnational knowledge management which provides, beyond mere technical solutions, different levels and intensities of exchange of experiences and common learning and mutual consulting in integrative and cooperative CLD.

Aims on the operational level

1. Learning how to get and evaluate information about the territorial strengths and weaknesses;
2. providing options for the organisation and legal setting of inter-municipal and intra-territorial cooperation;
3. establishing sustainable structures for managing CLD in the pilot regions managing issues such as intra-territorial cooperation, supply and exchange of land resources over the border of single municipalities;
4. highlighting the opportunities of implementing local development strategies such as „creative industries”, crafts culture, cluster effects, sector specific profiling and others;
5. demonstrating the value creation potential of profiling strategies for regions as crucial elements of local development (e. g. local crafts culture, culinary traditions, etc.).