The contribution of competitiveness clusters to local development: Case of the TANTAN ocean clusters

Abstract

The new industrial policy was launched by Wallonia in 2005 focused on competitiveness clusters; its objective was to network companies, research centers and educational institutions in order to stimulate the creation of new wealth and new jobs by financing of innovative projects.

In the vision, the poles of competitiveness are considered territorial areas that bring together economic actors, training institutes and research centers. These entities collaborate in a synchronized way, with the support of public actors in the region, in order to create growth synergies.

The objective of this research is to test the applicability of the policy of competitiveness clusters as an instrument of local development in the case of the fisheries sector in the port of Tan-Tan. It is indeed to study the possibility of having a pole of sea products in Tan-Tan.

This study is conducted through a quantitative approach based on a questionnaire sent to 24 companies (all of them operating in one of the fisheries sectors present in the port of Tan-Tan). Data processing was carried out by SPHINX software.

The results of this study show that after these studies on the competitiveness clusters in general and the OTT in the city of Tan-Tan it seems clear that the constitution of a competitiveness cluster based on seafood is quite valid. This is due to certain factors such as the strong cooperation between the companies of the port, on the one hand, and between the latter and other actors, on the other hand; the importance of the volume of production and its diversity; the impotence of innovation and new technology in the production process; diversity of sizes of companies and their activities; the process of production stops at the finished products with medium or high added values; the strong concern involvement of local authorities concerned with the sector.

Keywords: competitiveness cluster (poles); territorial development, synergy.

JEL Classification: M13; O47; P25 

Paper type: Empirical research