MITKE Good Practice Aug 2010

Good Practice in the Management and Development
of Business Areas and Industrial Parks:
Benchmark Findings from the MITKE Project
Co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund
and made possible by the INTERREG IVC Programme.

Authors: Mohan de Silva, Karen Harrison, and Mick McKigney
Published by: first the Wakefield District Development Agency
Newton Bar
Leeds Road
WAKEFIELD
WF1 2WZ
United Kingdom
website: www.wakefieldfirst.com
ISBN: 978-0-956-4444-0-0
Deliverable title: Good Practice in the Management and Development of Business Areas
and Industrial Parks: Benchmark Findings
Deliverable version: 1
Preparation date: July 2009
Authors: Published by first - the Wakefield District Development Agency, M de Silva,
K Harrison, M McKigney
Classification: Publishable
Contract Start date: 1st of November 2008
Duration: 36 months
Project coordinator: Sprilur, S.A.
Contract No. 02791R1
Partners: Sprilur, S.A., LABEIN Foundation, Pannon Business Network Association,
Rzeszow Regional Development Agency Co., Lubelskie Voivodeship, West Regional
Development Agency Romania, SOPRIP, first - the Wakefield District Development
Agency, Shannon Development, Údarás na Gaeltachta, Catalan Land Institute
Contents
Page
1. Foreword
2. Introduction & background
3. Project Methodology
4. MITKE Partners' Business Areas and Industrial Parks
14. Business Areas and Industrial Parks in the 21st century
15. Evidence from the Part One Survey
17. Evidence from the Part Two Survey
20. Evidence from the Part Three Survey
28. Key Characteristics of the MITKE Partners' BAIPs
29. The Key Advantages of the MITKE Partners' BAIPs
29. The Immediate Future of the MITKE Partners' BAIPs
30. The Medium Term Future of the MITKE Partners' BAIPs
31. Elements of Good Practice on the BAIPs
37. Conclusions and Recommendations
40. Bibliography
41. Appendix One:
The Programme Manual Framework for Reporting Good Practice
42. Appendix Two:
A Revised MITKE Model for Reporting Good Practice
43. Appendix Three:
A Sample MITKE Model of Good Practice

Foreword
The key objective of the INTERREG IVc project: Managing
the Industrial Territories in the Knowledge Era (hereafter:
MITKE) is to provide a platform and mechanisms for the
exchange of experiences and models of good practice so
as to better manage industrial parks across Europe.
Component 3 of the MITKE project to identify capacities
and knowledge of good practices in the management and
development of business areas and industrial parks
(BAIPs) as a prelude to disseminating this good practice
through a series of Inter-regional Workshops.
An important part of this work is identifying the current
'state of the art' of experience and practice in the partners'
parks. This is being accomplished through desk research
and questionnaire surveys of partners, and the managers
of BAIPs, to develop an information base that will assist
the development of knowledge resource and the know-
how for public and private stakeholders involved in the
development and management of BAIPs.
The report below provides an overview of the current
'state of the art' on MITKE partners' business areas and
industrial parks. It highlights the diversity of form and
experience amongst the partners' BAIPs but also some of
the common challenges and themes that partners face in
the short and medium term.
This report is not designed as a prescriptive blueprint to
the good practices that should be selected for adoption
and dissemination. Rather it is presented as an
evidenced-based source of ideas and good practice that
will aid discussion and reflection by partners prior to the
final selection of a range of good practices for partners to
transfer and apply to their specific BAIP.
Final Report on Component Three Analysis:
Survey Analysis & Findings
We would like to thank all the partners and their
colleagues for their help and cooperation in completing
the survey work and particularly in ensuring a good
response from the businesses on their parks to the Part 3
questionnaire surveys.
We would particularly like to thank Stratis Koutsoukos,
Research Fellow of Leeds Business School, for his
advice and assistance in data analysis work on the
survey of businesses on the parks.
We commend this report to colleagues and hope that it
will provide a rich source of information, context and
direction for the further development and delivery of
the MITKE project's objectives of improving the
functioning and progress of Europe's business areas
and industrial parks.
The publication of this report within the framework of the
MITKE project does not imply endorsement by the
managing partner, project partners or the INTERREG IV
programme, of its arguments or observations.
Mohan de Silva, Chief Executive
Karen Harrison, Project Manager
Mick McKigney, Head of Policy & Research
Good Practice in the Management of Business Areas and Industrial Parks: Findings from the MITKE Project Page 1

Introduction and Background
The European Regional Development Funds INTERREG IVc project:
Managing the Industrial Territories in the Knowledge Era (MITKE),
provides a practically focused initiative to transform the Lisbon-
Gothenburg agenda into tangible outcomes and synergies across EU
regions' business and industrial parks.
The launch in 2000 of the Lisbon Strategy marked a major shift in
European Union (EU) regional policy with a decisive shift to emphasising
the transformation of member state economies and regions. The central
aim was to address the growing productivity gap between the EU and
leading OECD members by making the EU:
"the most dynamic and competitive knowledge-based economy in
the world capable of sustainable economic growth with more and
better jobs and greater social cohesion, and respect for the
environment by 2010".
In as much as the Treaty of Rome of 1957 had its roots in the great
project of transforming and modernising the industrial growth sectors of
coal and steel the Lisbon project marked an impetus to an economic
growth regime based on high order skills, high value added and
innovation based activities.
The subsequent Gothenburg Agenda in 2001 added the critical
dimension of sustainability to the Lisbon growth agenda so as to ensure
greater protection of the environment and with more sustainable patterns
of development, particularly emphasising 'decoupling resource use and
the generation of waste from growth'.
Most of the themes at the heart of the Lisbon and Gothenburg agenda
are core issues for transforming and re-developing the business areas
and industrial parks that are key employment zones or growth poles in
the EU regions. As such the INTERREG IVc project, "Managing the
Industrial Territories in the Knowledge Era" - MITKE, is very much
focused on transforming, recycling, and recreating new dynamic spaces
to sustain enterprises that are growing the new generation of high quality
activities and skills that epitomise the Lisbon-Gothenburg agenda.
The MITKE project brings together a strong mix of partners from the "old"
and "new" Europe all with a common interest of building good practice
models for the better management of business areas and industrial
parks. However, MITKE partners all face great challenges in a much
changed economic climate; not only sustaining what advantages they
might currently possess, but being strategic and positive about gaining
new advantages to sustain new cycles of growth when the economic
upturn comes.
In the next section we briefly outline how the MITKE project proposes to
develop an evidence base for the identification of good practice for the
improvement and advancement of the partners' business areas and
industrial parks as well as providing lessons for other parks across the
EU.
Page 2

Project Methodology
The MITKE project requires a strong and well developed evidence base to
build the work of transferring best practice experience between partners'
Business Areas and Industrial Parks (BAIP). first - the Wakefield District
Development Agency, was asked to lead on this component of the
1
project.
For our analysis work we proposed three interwoven and interrelated
activities as a way of finding common threads and themes as well as
gain a better understanding of the specific conditions and variations of
different partners' business areas and industrial parks.
Component 3 of the MITKE is devoted to identifying and analysing
current practices in the management and development of BAIPs so as to
highlight those practices that are good and those that could and should
be improved. first - the Wakefield District Development Agency leads
this component and from our experience and in consultation with
partners via email and online conferences a methodology was agreed
which essentially consists of three elements:
1. Establish baseline information and background on each partner's
context,
2. A surveying of the managers of individual BAIPs in the partners'
territory, and
3. A survey of the firms on the partners' BAIPs encompassing sections
on: business issues, promotion and marketing, crime and security,
environment, energy, transport, security, business associations,
management of the park.
The first strand of this scoping work was to ensure that we are able to
clearly appreciate the differences as well as the similarities between each
partner area so that we can understand the structural context of partners'
BAIPs. These not only concern issues of spatial scale and hinterlands
but also demographics (population and business densities) and most
importantly institutional and infrastructural characteristics which will
affect the take up or diffusion of good or best practices.
The surveying of the managers of the BAIPs is to get a very practical
grasp of the 'state of the art' of the current situation on the partners'
industrial parks. This will give us a rich vein of information to mine for
elements of good practices as well as key interests of the BAIPs that are
new or re-structuring.
The third element of the survey work is in essence a reality check with the
existing businesses on the BAIPs to help us gauge whether the direction of
travel or circumstances on individual parks is such as to encourage these
businesses to stay and grow in that location and also as to whether there
may be barriers to growth or the attraction of new clients to the BAIP. By
linking the two strands of policy and practice within the parks with what
the businesses want we can begin to cast more light and ensure a better
fit of the range of actions and issues that stakeholders might take with
what businesses really want. In short this will help to join together the
world of the economic development officers and the managers of the
BAIPs, with the world of the businesses that they are trying to attract and
2
retain on the BAIPS.
Thus, for example, are there pre-existing or recently developed problems
that the managers or developers of the BAIPs need to tackle to ensure that
the BAIP is 'fit for purpose' for enterprises' needs? It is first's experience
that business development specialists and those that are managing
business areas and industrial parks can underestimate the impact of 'non-
business' problems on local businesses.
The latter is particularly important as an industrial park will tend to have a
development trajectory very much associated with the core sector or
sectors that dominate that park. When such businesses close or shift
elsewhere this often means the collapse of associated supply chains and
skills infrastructures. Furthermore there can also be transitional phases
within industrial parks where the shifting away of certain sectors and key
businesses leaves a legacy of decay and dereliction that can create major
problems for future development, and the attraction of new enterprises to
the location.
In Schumpeterian language: 'the gales of creative destruction' that sweep
away old sectors also drive the need to re-build new spaces and
infrastructures for the new productions and new businesses. Indeed, this
can be said to be at heart of the MITKE project: developing new tools and
competencies to ensure that BAIPs can adapt and change to provide the
environment to ensure the growth of dynamic businesses whose
competitive edge lies in higher productivity and know-how advantages that
3
cannot be easily competed away by producers in the BRIIC economies.
The next section provides a brief summary of the partners' context and the
business areas and industrial parks which were focused on the project.
1
MITKE has 4 key components:
Component 1: Management and
co-ordination of the project;
Component 2: Communication
& dissemination of the project's
activities;
Component 3: Exchange of
experiences though the
identification, sharing &
exchange of good practices;
Component 4: Development and
piloting of improvement plans
for BAIPs.
2
This of course echoes EURADA
(2008) which highlights the
need to ensure that there is a
balance between overcoming
the mesoeconomic challenges
of reducing disparities between
regions with the microeconomic
challenges of supporting
enterprises' competitiveness.
3
The BRIIC economies are:
Brazil, Russia, India, Indonesia
and China.

IMITKE Partners' Business Areas
and Industrial Parks
This section provides an outline of the partners' chosen BAIPs.
Okamika was established in 1984 and covers an area of
88,599 square metres. The BAIP is home to 30
businesses employing 436 people. Okamikako
Industrialdea, S.A. was set up in December 1984 as part
of a local response to the problems of encouraging
economic regeneration in a beautiful but economically
depressed region. The project was developed and
managed by the Lea Rural Council District Authority on
behalf of the Basque Government and Bizkaia Regional
Government. The shareholders in this public company
are currently SPRILUR, S.A., with a 51% stake, and
Bizkaia Regional Government, with 49%.
The fundamental objective was to provide an appropriate
and efficient vehicle to develop a particularly depressed
region, and especially one that lacked an industrial
tradition. Furthermore, the area did not possess a stock
of readily available land and infrastructure to act as a
magnet to industry and commerce to provide
employment and to prevent outward migration. Thus
creation of the Okamika Industrial Park was to host local
businesses as well as attract new businesses to the area.
Subsequently an industrial estate integrated into a
pleasant natural environment was created which now
stands at over 90,000 m2 of managed facilities.
Infrastructures have been set up including: mains water,
industrial water and fire-fighting water systems, separate
industrial and organic waste networks, as well as waste
treatment plants, electricity and industrial diesel
centralised in each pavilion, meeting, conference and
training rooms, together with other optional services
located in the main service offices of the estate and
available to the companies located there.
Partner 1: SPRILUR was created in 1995 as a publicly-owned agency to plan and coordinate
the design and development of industrial premises and offices in the Basque Autonomous
Region.
Name of BAIP: Okamika
Page 4

Partner 1: SPRILUR
Name of BAIP: Tolosa Apatta
Tolosa Apatta was established in 1999 and currently
covers an area of 300,000 square metres. The BAIP is
home to 59 businesses employing 983 people.
Tolosaldeko Apattaerreka Industria Lurra, S.A. was
incorporated to stimulate and foster economic activities
in the Tolosaldea district, an area experiencing difficult
economic circumstances. An industrial estate in the
Apattaerreka zone was created by reclaiming and
developing urbanised land, creating industrial premises
and buildings for sale and lease to businesses. This
initiative parallels SPRILUR's Industrialdeak Programme
and the development of the industrial zone in Ibarra,
Leaburu and Tolosa municipal districts and the
surrounding areas and is similar to the industrial land
developed by the different Tolosaldea municipalities.
The development formula is to create an urbanised
industrial environment which embodies a more flexible
approach to land supply and providing sites and
premises that better match the needs of companies. The
gross total surface area of the sector is 512,828 m2.
Tolosaldeko Apattaerreka Industria Lurra is offering plots
of 95,000 m2 of buildable land to companies, as well as
17,500 m2 constructed units in modular premises for
industrial purposes. The latter extension is known as the
"Apattaerreka 2nd phase" comprising a gross surface
area of 143,000 m2 with 48,500 m2 of building already
occupied. The maintenance of the industrial estate is the
responsibility of an Urban Conservation Entity (EUC).
Partner 1: SPRILUR
Name of BAIP: Zumarraga Argixao
Zumarraga Argixao was established in 1987 and covers
an area of 65,766 square meters. The BAIP is home to
27 businesses employing 494 people. The park took its
inception from the industrial restructuring crisis,
particularly in the iron and steel sector, which led to the
closure of some companies and restructuring of others,
with widespread layoffs and a significant rise in
unemployment. The local council in Zumarraga followed
the example of other councils in Gipuzkoa, and decided
to set up a company to develop, manage and implement
an industrial estate. "Zumarragako Industrialdea S.A."
was therefore set up by its partners, SPRI, Gipuzkoa
Regional Government and Zumarraga Council, on 26
December 1985, to develop a park and construct new
buildings for start-ups and the transfer companies facing
difficult conditions.
In this joint venture between the regional authorities and
agencies and the municipalities of Zumarraga, Urretxu,
Legazpi and Ezkio-Itsaso, the local authorities
municipalities became shareholders in the company set
up to stimulate and promote industrial investment in their
area. It implemented this by:
?Creating a dedicated urban development zone through
the acquisition and consolidation of land holdings
suitable for urban and industrial development,
?By constructing industrial premises and ancillary
buildings, initially managed and owned by Zumarraga
Argixao, and
?By letting and selling premises to companies locating
or relocating to the park.

Developed in 1997 the Claudius Industrial Park is a 185
hectare industrial park situated on the south-edge of
Szombathely providing excellent production location for
the town's biggest companies and a growing number of
small and medium size enterprises. Most of the
businesses were attracted here by the central position
and cross-border role of Szombathely, as well as the
outstanding infrastructure of the park and the high quality
labour force of the region. The majority of the companies
on Claudius Industrial Park are focused on high-
technology manufacturing characterised by high level of
skills.
The Claudius Industrial and Innovation Park offers a wide
range of business support services to firms, including:
real estate trading, tendering, security service, book-
keeping and training service provision and mediation. By
deepening the range of services offered to businesses
the park management aim to strengthen and diversify the
supply chain basis of the established enterprises as well
as attract complementary businesses to the locality.
Partner 3: Pannon Business Network Association, is a private business networking
organisation working on the business and industrial parks of the West-Pannon Region providing
support on innovation, marketing, project development and business networking particularly
along sectoral clusters to firms on their parks.
Name of BAIP: CLAUDIUS Industrial and Innovation Park
Podkarpackie Science and Technology Park AEROPOLIS
(PSTP) is one of the most attractive investment areas in
south-eastern Poland. AEROPOLIS presents an ideal
location for the development of modern companies and
technology. It has well developed linkages with local
universities and high schools as well as scientific
research centres. PSTP is Poland's leading industrial park
sustaining the region's long and deeply-rooted traditions
in the aviation industry both in terms of production and
scientific and technological development. The park is
located 10 km from the centre of the regional capital
Rzeszow, at the junction of two main transport routes.
The proximity of Rzeszow-Jasionka airport has been a
major factor in attracting Polish and foreign investors to
the area. However, the lack of technical infrastructure
remains a problem.
The project to establish Podkarpackie Science and
Technology Park - Stage 1, was realised between January
2005 and October 2008. The total cost of this European
Regional Development Fund supported project was €9.8M,
with the resultant development providing 123 ha of land
equipped with infrastructure.
Rzeszów Regional Development Agency is currently
preparing the extension of Podkarpackie Science and
Technology Park AEROPOLIS by developing the overall
infrastructure for next 51 ha of the land for future investors.
These plans also include the building of the Technological
Incubator and the complex of research laboratories. The
latter include: laboratories for Composite and Polymer
Materials for the Aviation Industry, IT Systems for
Diagnosis Purposes, Computer-Aided Research and Design
of Aviation Constructions, and a Biotechnology Laboratory.
Partner 4: Rzeszow Regional Development Agency Co, Poland, set up by the provincial
authorities of the Podkarpackie Voivodship the development agency functions as a not-for-profit
organisation responsible for tourism, the promotion of the area to investors as well as the
design and development of business and industrial parks.
Name of BAIP: PODKARPACKIE Science and Technology Park AEROPOLIS (PSTP)
Page 6

Partner 5: Lubelskie Voivodeship, Poland is the provincial authority for the Lublin region and
takes a leading role in economic regeneration including the development of business and
industrial parks.
Name of BAIP: SWIDNIK Regional Industrial Park
The origin of the park is in the 1999 restructuring of PZL
Swidnik, Polish Aviation Works, a large manufacturer of
helicopters. The local and regional authorities of Swidnik,
with the Polish government and private companies,
decided to form a technology park on a major part site of
the aviation works. Established in 2004 this 50 hectare
site hosts 33 enterprises employing 1,100 employees in
SMEs that are mainly in the manufacturing sectors of
aviation, construction, packaging, and clothing. There is
also recycling and other businesses on the site. The site
benefits from excellent rail and road infrastructure, with
the latter being upgraded, and it is adjacent to a new
airport development.
The park is now entering an exciting new phase of
development where European Regional Development
Funds will provide a wide range of infrastructure
developments, advance factory units and a business
development support programme for entrepreneurs and
start-up companies.
This new phase of development will also include the
creation of leisure and hotel facilities on the park as well
as a conference centre and R&D facilities. The plans are
particularly focusing on R&D related to the aviation
sector and are working in cooperation with Lublin
Technology University to encourage R&D spin outs and
the development of an aviation technology cluster.
Partner 5: Lubelskie Voivodeship, Poland
Name of BAIP: Park Naukowo-Technologiczny Województwa Lubelskiego Spólka Akcyjna
Park Naukowo-Technologiczny Województwa
Lubelskiego Spólka Akcyjna (PNTWL S.A.) The Science
and Technology Park of the Lublin Voivodeship, was
established as a joint stock company in February 2005
between Lublin Voivodeship, the local authority (who
own 27.6%) and Agricultural University of Lublin (owning
72.4%), on a 4 hectare site in Lublin. The local authority
Lublin Voivodeship built the science and technology park
infrastructure, and a multi-function building of 10,000
m². Recently there have been changes in the ownership
structure of the park with Lubelskie Voivodeship owning
95% of the estate and the Agricultural University of Lublin
possessing a 5% share.
PNTWL S.A is responsible for the physical and financial
development of the park whilst a sister company: LPNT
Sp. z o.o. is responsible for providing science and
technology services to the businesses on the park.
The Park owns and manages 2,500 m² building where
many companies have their headquarters plus university
facilities. Major development works are planned for the
park's 4 hectare site development which will see the
creation of laboratory and office rooms/facilities, totalling
over 10,000 m². Investment plans for 2009 - 2011
include construction of multi-functional complex of
buildings inclusive of the infrastructure for the site's
functioning.

West Arad Industrial Park is located on the north western
side of Arad City, in the western part of Romania - to the
north of West Region. The city is only 60 km away from
the border with Hungary. The Industrial Park is situated
within the city limits of Arad, which is one of the major
urban centres in Western Romania. The park's location
was selected by local council decision. West Arad
Industrial Park was established in 1998 and has a total
surface of 150,000 square metres within its boundaries.
At present, the companies established in the industrial
zone are in the following fields: light industry, storage,
production of car components, production of industrial
and electrical components, ceramic and porcelain
industry.
The industrial zone is also provided with an Internal
Custom Point and a modern Exhibition Centre. Currently
there are 29 companies located on the park.
Partner 6: West Regional Development Agency, Romania - is the regional development
agency for West Romania and is responsible for managing Romania's Operational Programme
for the region as well as taking a lead role in coordinating inward investment responses.
Name of BAIP: West Arad Industrial Park
The park covers a total 180,100 square metres with
81,000 square metres of business premises hosting 9
firms employing a total of 50 workers.
Filagni Business Park is located on the outskirts (2
kilometres) of the town of Collecchio. Located in
agricultural region the municipality of Collecchio decided
to create this BAIP so as to concentrate the agro-
industrial businesses scattered across the region into a
more coherent and specialised park able to support and
better manage the area's urban and environmental
aspects.
Soprip, the economic development agency for Parma
and Piacenza provinces developed the park on behalf of
the municipality selling off plots and buildings to
companies. Additionally, Soprip promoted and developed
a Consortium to manage common services on the park,
which they administer on behalf of the businesses on the
park. Soprip is now seeking to enlarge the park and to
transform it into an Eco-Industrial Area, in line with
regional planning legislation. This next phase of the
development of the park will start in 2009.
Partner 7: SOPRIP, Italy - set up in 1981 SOPRIP is the development agency of Parma and
Piacenza whose aim is promote the economic development of the regions and support the
diffusion of innovation. SOPRIP has designed, implemented and managed a large number of
industrial parks (17) as well as 3 business incubators.
Name of BAIP: Filagni Business Park, Collecchio
Page 8

Partner 8: first - the Wakefield District Development Agency, United Kingdom, was
established in 2002 as a public-private partnership with the remit of marketing and promoting
the Wakefield District area, leading inward investment enquiries, and strategic interventions, for
example the revival of Langthwaite Business Park.
Name of BAIP: Langthwaite Business Park
Langthwaite Business Park, (formerly known as
Langthwaite Grange Industrial Estate) is a 57 hectare
industrial estate located in South Kirkby, in the south east
of Wakefield District. The park hosts over 1500
employees in 91 businesses composed as follows:
Manufacturing 57%, Distribution 25%, Business Services
15%, and Community Services 3%. Opened in 1949 the
site's development and environmental design was
influenced by the British "Garden City" movement, which
sought to bring greenery to urban settings. Created at a
time of labour shortage and post war boom, the industrial
development was expected to provide work for the
women of the area as the male population was mostly
employed in local collieries.
In the 1980's West Yorkshire suffered serious economic
decline following the closure of the collieries, the decline
of manufacturing and particularly the decline of the textile
and clothing sectors. One of the measures introduced by
UK government to help the economic recovery of the
worst affected areas was to develop Enterprise Zones. An
unfortunate result of this 'laissez faire' approach was
disjointed development and a lack of stability. Wakefield
Council, who had previously owned the whole site, sold
off much of their portfolio, exacerbating the problems of
ad hoc development that grew with increased multiple-
ownership.
In 2005 first led a consultation with occupiers of
Langthwaite Grange to engage them in a partnership
approach to halt and turn around the estate's decline. The
overall aim was "to create a vibrant setting for investment
through effective and critical environmental and physical
regeneration", and specifically tackle the problems of
crime and poor environmental quality identified by
businesses on the Estate. The key benefit was to be the
attraction and retention of new investment onto the
Estate which it was believed would lead to increased
confidence in the local area.
By 2006 first had secured over €1.3 million of funding to
address the crime and environmental problems and
within 18 months had succeeded in:
?Creating 20 new businesses bringing over 200 new
jobs
?Reduced crime by 70% reduction within a year (August
2005-August 2006)
?Attracted €15M of private sector investment into the
park

Páirc Ghnó an Daingin is a small 1.5 hectare park jointly
developed by Kerry County Council and Údarás na
Gaeltachta consisting of 1,470 m2 one and two storey
buildings completed in February 2003. The primary
purpose of the complex along with office space for
Údarás na Gaeltachta's Munster offices is to provide high
quality office and training space for small and medium
enterprises as well as start up businesses in the West
Kerry Gaeltacht (Irish speaking region).
The complex, with units ranging in size from 42 to 408
sq. m2, was designed and built with a strong focus on
sustainable energy usage through utilising low energy
argon filled double glazing, electrical provision from
sustainable sources and both energy efficient lighting
and heating.
Partner 10: Údarás na Gaeltachta, Ireland, is the regional authority responsible for the
economic, social and cultural development of the Gaeltacht, or Irish speaking areas of Ireland.
Name of the BAIP: Páirc Ghnó an Daingin
Partner 9: Shannon Development, Ireland Shannon Development is a government owned
regional development company which promotes and leads development in the Shannon Region
of Ireland. Its activities include the design and development of business and industrial parks.
Name of BAIP: Kerry Technology Park
Kerry Technology Park is owned and managed by
Shannon development, and located in close proximity to
Tralee Town, Co. Kerry, in the South West of Ireland. The
Park shares a campus with the Institute of Technology,
Tralee. The entire site extends to 45 hectare (ha), of
which 25 ha are owned by the Institute of Technology,
Tralee and 20 ha by Shannon Development.
The key objective of Kerry Technology Park is the
creation of a sustainable cluster of technology and
knowledge intensive enterprise, through the provision of
a world-class business environment comprising an
excellent quality physical location, strong links to a third-
level education facility, state of the art technology
infrastructure and telecommunications facilities, as well
as availability of business development and advisory
services.
Since it opened in 2001, Kerry Technology Park has
become a role model for the successful integration of
education and enterprise. The Park currently hosts a
cluster of Irish technology start-ups that have achieved
global success, and a number of internationally
recognised research centres. It continues to strive to
achieve new goals in the successful integration of
business, higher education and innovation.
Page 10

Partner 10: Údarás na Gaeltachta, Ireland
Name of the BAIP: Páirc Gnó Béal an Mhuirthead
This small 2 hectare park hosts small businesses many
of them in the high technology sector who are pleased to
invest in a stunningly beautiful location which boasts an
excellent ICT infrastructure (e.g. a high-speed data
service of up to 300Mbps) able to meet the needs of the
most demanding technology or information based
business.
Áisleann Béal an Mhuirthead formally opened in January
2007. The complex comprises Udaras na Gaeltachta
offices, Mayo County Council offices, a modern 200 seat
arts centre and cinema as well as an Innovation Centre.
Within the Innovation Centre (which opened in August
2008), clients are offered the opportunity to develop their
business concept from an idea to sales. The Innovation
Centre provides the innovation support services through
the Mayo Ideas Lab.
The Innovation Centre enables a prospective entrepreneur
to develop their business idea in a facility providing
advice on market research, innovation partnerships,
patenting, licensing and other potential avenues to
develop the business.
In addition, Westbic, an official EU Business and
Innovation Centre, provide a developmental service to
business in the areas of feasibility studies, research,
process engineering, innovation management,
productivity etc. The Innovation Centre also provides hot-
desk facilities for entrepreneurs so that they can develop
their business with support programmes available from
Udaras na Gaeltachta, the Galway-Mayo Institute of
Technology (GMIT), and other resources, depending on
the project type. As the entrepreneur graduates from the
incubation process the Innovation Centre can also supply
them with office space for their business. The Centre
also runs a bimonthly development programme of events
for clients on a range of specific business issues.
Údarás na Gaeltachta has a team of experienced advisers
who advise businesses and individuals on the full range
of business issues involved in starting a business or
becoming self-employed; including start-up advice and
assistance, as well as financial aid for research,
marketing, capital investment, training, and job creation.
A team of business advisors deliver these services based
in the different Údarás na Gaeltachta industrial and
business sites.

The industrial polygon of Camí dels Frares is a major
industrial park development of mixed industrial and
commercial activity. The first phase of development
consisting of 72.62 hectares began in 1992 and was
completed in 1999. A second phase of 20.04 hectares
was finished in 2002. A third phase of development
consisting of 24.92 hectares was finished in 2004. The
park now totals 117.58 hectares and hosts 140
companies. The majority of the 850 employees on the
site are women.
Camí dels Frares is located in a prime urban location and
the park benefits from excellent infrastructure and
accessibility particularly in respect of transport links to
local labour markets. The park has industrial plots
available in the expansion area, as well as separate sites
for isolated industry and storage usage, and also space
for tertiary sector use. The park has a landscaped
contoured boundaries offering vantage viewing points.
Partner 11: Institut Català Del Sòl, Spain was established in 1980 by the regional government
of Catalonia as a commercially independent organisation with wide ranging development
responsibilities (social housing, land and property development, heritage conservation)
including the development of business and industrial parks.
Name of the BAIP: El Camí dels Frares, Lleida
Partner 10: Údarás na Gaeltachta, Ireland
Name of the BAIP: Pairc Ghnó Ghaoth Dobhair
Pairc Ghnó Ghaoth Dobhair is located in County Donegal
in the north east of Ireland is a general purpose business
and industrial park hosting a range of businesses from
the food sector through to modern construction firms.
Údarás na Gaeltachta has its regional office on the
business park which allows clients excellent access to
business support advice and information and encourages
good relationship between the companies and the
agency. Other government departments also have offices
on the business park providing a diverse employment
and activity base to the development. Amongst the
private companies located on the park are a medical
transcription service company, food manufacturers,
industrial and construction businesses.
There are further plans for developing Páirc Ghno Ghaoth
Dobhair in a partnership between Údarás na Gaeltachta,
Donegal County Council and private investors notably
with the creation of leisure facilities as well as additional
industrial and business units. This will create a balanced
development and give the overall site and its workforces
access to a wide range of services and facilities.
Page 12

Partner 11: Institut Català Del Sòl, Spain was established in 1980 by the regional government
of Catalonia as a commercially independent organisation with wide ranging development
responsibilities (social housing, land and property development, heritage conservation)
including the development of business and industrial parks.
Name of the BAIP: Viladecans, Can Calderon
Can Calderon is a 48.56 hectare park hosting 33
companies employing around 800 employees. Located
close to the urban centre Can Calderon was specifically
designed to integrate an employment zone with local
labour markets. Based on local supply and demand plans
for land and premises against skills availability, the park
provides an integrated business support service
incorporating assistance on vocational training, business
support and projects development advice.

Business Areas and Industrial Parks in the 21st century
Industrial estates and business parks are a relatively new economic
phenomenon reflecting the more technologically based and machine
intensive basis of the second industrial revolution. These new
concentrations of production were at the heart of the development of
20th century mass manufacture, of what has been termed "the rise of
4
Fordism".
Industrial estates marked a new phase of spatial and urban development
as the web of workshops typifying urban capitalism was eclipsed by new
purpose built developments to house collections of large mass
production enterprises usually on the edge of existing urban settlements.
This was particularly the case after the Second World War when
economists and planners sought to use planning and regional policies to
attract industry to areas where there were large pools of labour.
In the post war period economic planning and government
reconstruction plans paid especial attention to stimulating regional
growth. François Perroux's influential concept of growth poles and the
general drive to develop growth centres of industrial agglomeration were
key features of the regional economic development policy across Europe
in the 1950s and 1960s. The same applied (if not especially) to Eastern
Europe where the model was to develop new concentrations of industry
as state sponsored and centrally planned initiatives creating new
geographies of industry and production.
By the 1970s and 1980s many of these concentrations of mass
production in Western Europe had passed their heyday and were in
serious decline as the manufacturing that typified their core activity was
being competed away by competition from newly industrialising
countries. Many of the large firms in the industrial heartlands were in
crisis in the 1980s as rising costs, ageing plant and more open
competition spelt out the demise of swathes of industries and jobs in
what where characterized as the "old industrial areas" (Steiner, 1985).
This was very much the case with UK industrial parks which declined
markedly across the 1980s. Similar problems were seen in Germany,
France, Spain, and Italy. Many nations became concerned that a
European productivity dilemma appeared to be eroding competitiveness
in "old" sectors and preventing the creative rise of new sectors to fill the
jobs and income gaps. Failings in national innovation systems were
identified as crucial part of the problem with gaps in the generation and
diffusion of innovation seen as at the root of insufficient competitive
intensity to compel businesses to adopt new practices and innovations.
Within this setting many EU countries for example Ireland and Scotland
tried to recreate dynamism within their economies and regions by
attracting and building new concentrations, often branch plants of high
technology firms, on new business and industrial parks. Whilst this
implanting of new technology based firms had spill-over effects there
were was a broader realisation that skills development and particularly in
the higher skills (i.e. degree and post graduate level) was increasingly
important in gaining competitive edge for national and regional
economies.
As a series of OECD reports in the 1990s noted the OECD economies
were increasingly based on knowledge and information as drivers of
productivity and economic growth, leading to a new focus on the role of
information, technology and learning in economic performance. Across
the EU regions there has been a growing realisation that workers needed
to continuously update and adapt new skills in a "learning economy".
Furthermore as Kevin Morgan has argued renewal of old regions in a
dynamic and sustainable path was dependent on the interaction between
innovation, new skills development and building new institutional
capacities and competencies into a "learning region" (Morgan, 1997).
Within this there has been a growing realisation of the role of national
and regional governments in the development and maintenance of the
knowledge base, and particularly in promoting the identification and
adoption of "best practices" in the field of science, technology and
industry.
This particularly applies to developing infrastructures (in its broadest
sense) within the regions and especially at the level of re-organised and
modernised space within regions and localities to host new generations
of dynamic businesses and sectors.
4
Indeed, Trafford Park, the UK
and the world's first industrial
park formed in 1896 was to
host one of Ford's first
multinational investments for
assembling Ford tractors and
later the Model T motor car, the
latter emblematic of the mass
production techniques of
Fordism. Ireland's first industrial
park in Cork at Marina Point was
to host Ford's first European full
car production plant in 1917.
Page 14

Evidence from the Part One Survey
The analyses of the survey of partners and the managers of Business
Areas and Industrial Parks show the majority of these zones are of
critical importance within partners' regional economies. Partners'
responses are recorded in the graph below. However, digging below
these initial responses it is clear that the 34% reporting to have 1-3 other
business parks have in many instances many more BAIPs quite close.
Thus the 33% reporting large numbers of industrial parks in the vicinity
of their chosen BAIP is probably under-reported; half of the partners
would appear to have a high number of business areas in or around their
target BAIP.
The survey responses illustrate the strong managerial and influencing role
that the partners have in respect of the BAIPs that they have selected for
inclusion in the MITKE project.
The importance of the BAIP
This may be an important consideration for the managers of the BAIP
where best practice is to be piloted in terms of considering any
networking or linkages between parks within the partners' areas or
between partners with a common thematic interest. For example, there is
a well established debate amongst economists of innovation (Nelson and
Winter, and Teece on 'tacit knowledge' and 'learning by doing') that buddy
networks and direct contacts can help others to introduce new
techniques in a more effective and productive manner.
4-5
1-3
11-15
6-10
21-50
16-20
22%
34%
0%
0%
33%
11%
Control of the BAIP
This level of influence and control will have an important bearing on the
scope for developing programmes for the transfer of knowledge of good
practice across the partners; and will be a critical success factor in the
development and implementation of best practice.
Manages for public body
Owns
Manages on behalf of
business on the BAIP
Manages as a private body
Other (please state)
36%
46%
9%
9%
Number of BAIP’s in Locality
Relationships to the chosen BAIP

The graph below summarises partners' perception of their BAIPs'
significance as zones of employment and economic activity in their
locality/region. It is also clear that the development and modernisation of
partners' BAIPs will be an important ongoing operational factor for the
success of the economic well-being of their area given that over two
thirds are growth poles or key employment zones.
The significance of the selected BAIP
It is also clear from desk research that the majority of parks are located
in predominantly urban areas where their development and success is an
important factor in the local economy. Even where the partners' BAIP
geography has aspects of a strongly rural hinterland such as for
example, in the Irish and Romanian partners' case they remain very
much oriented to specialisms associated with industrial development
rather than to primarily processing materials from the rural areas.
Furthermore, all the BAIPs appear to be key development zones and
fundamentally important to the economic development of the areas they
are located in. This gives the BAIPs great social, economic and spatial
importance within their region. It also highlights the potential need of
further work within the MITKE project to ensure the project outputs and
outcomes are linked into wider programmes within partners' areas.
Whilst this is supposed to be an implicit and explicit aspect of INTERREG
projects it is worth re-emphasising and especially within the context of
the work that will be required with stakeholders within the MITKE project.
The significance of the BAIPs is also underlined in the response to the
question as to the initiation and funding of the areas; as the graph below
shows, they have been predominantly public sector led.
Specialist cluster
Key employment zone
Other (please state)
Growth pole
14%
44%
21%
What is the significance of your chosen BAIP?
Local public initiative
National public initiative
Private/public initiative
Regional public initiative
31%
15%
15%
39%
How was the BAIP established?
21%
This highlights an important aspect of the parks' origins as deliberate
policy initiatives to create employment and economic growth within a
regional context. The welfare considerations that gave rise to the BAIPs
specifically in response to some aspect of market failure also highlight
other aspects of their context: they are not completely autonomous, they
may require further public sector support to modernise, they may have
to compete for resources to implement change, careful consideration
needs to be given to ensuring good match to the private sector's needs.
A supply side initiated modernisation (i.e. transferring good practice) of
the BAIPs may well be a necessary condition but it will not in itself
necessarily be a sufficient condition for the success of a BAIP.
The graph below highlights the complexity and multi-functional nature of
the partners' role in their chosen BAIPs mixing strong elements of
strategic as well as operational responsibility. There are a number of
important correlates to this and especially in diffusing good practice
across MITKE partners' BAIPS. These include:
1. The need to focus on linkages between good practices on a modular
basis (namely joining up best practices into coherent development
plans for partners' BAIPs)
2. The necessity of prioritising the transfer of good practice for specific
partner BAIPs
3. Providing practical models and lessons of good practice for partners
(i.e. an emphasis on exchanging 'how to do' toolkits as well as on
process innovations such as for example implementing to ISO
standards).
Partners' Responsibility in their Selected BAIP
Page 16

Evidence from the Part Two Survey
The partners' BAIPs show a considerable range in their size, employment
patterns and labour market structure:
?The thirteen BAIPs host a total of almost 30,000 employees
?The majority of the employees are males
?The thirteen BAIPs are home to a total of 384 enterprises
?The BAIPs are predominantly populated by small and medium sized
enterprises (with the exception of the Romanian BAIP)
?Although there are missing values in the responses, the pattern of
skills on the BAIPs is in the main skilled and semi-skilled labour
?One park (in Rzeszow, Poland) has an exceptionally strong knowledge
5
based workforce (of 90%) a skills profile echoing its science park
orientation
?Shannon in South West Ireland also has a BAIP with a strong
knowledge based workforce structure of 68% graduate and post
graduates
The overall picture of the employment patterns on the MITKE partner's
business and industrial parks is that of an essentially "post-fordist"
sectoral orientation; of economic structures and activities where mass
manufacture has given way (or been directly and deliberately avoided) to
'emerging' sectors and a much more diverse industrial concentration.
Indeed, our desk research shows similar directions and paths of travel of
many of the partners' regional economies. Thus, culturally different
Bilbao and Wakefield show the same stark patterns of major industrial
restructuring and the shift of mass employment in the urban centres
from production to consumption. Indeed, Rodríguez's (2001) description
of the urban renaissance of Bilbao in the Basque Country, traditionally
home to heavy industry, has many echoes of Wakefield's current
direction of travel; a new masterplan for the urban centre, a period of
difficulty with land assembly, a waterfront redevelopment, and an iconic
museum!
The BAIP in Arad, Romania appears to be a significant exception to this
with mass employment in labour intensive sectors predominating on the
site.
Structure of the Partners’ selected BAIP’s
Most of the BAIPs have to have active systems of contacting the firms on
their BAIP with the majority of the contact being quite traditional. However,
this contact appears to be something of a 'hit and miss' affair with little or
no monitoring of the effectiveness of the contact and only 23% of the
BAIPs using Customer Relationship Management systems to track the
contacts. Furthermore only one survey correspondent appeared to be
monitoring the effectiveness of their contact with the firms on their BAIP.
Linkages with the businesses on the BAIP
5
definition of knowledge based
enterprises as those whose
workforce is made up of 25% or
more university graduates.
Here we follow the OECD
Email
Post
Direct
Telephone
14
4
11
14
How do you contact businesses?

This highlights an area of activity which may merit further investigation
and follow-up with the management of the BAIPs. It certainly contrasts
with the responses to Section E of the survey which provides evidence of
both of a strong managerial and physical presence (80%) on the BAIPs.
It also compares with the BAIP managers' estimation that their liaison
with businesses is mainly effective (55%) or very effective (9%) as
recorded in the graph below.
Effective
Very effective
Ineffective
Partly Effective
55%
9%
18%
18%
Effectiveness of Liaison with Businesses on BAIP
Although there is some evidence of instances of crime on the BAIPs
most of the managers do not see this as a serious problem. It will be
useful to see if this is replicated in the survey with the businesses on the
6
BAIPs. It is also notable that a number of the MITKE partners' BAIPs
had closed-circuit television (CCTV) systems in place on the park which
may have a strong deterrent effect on the incidence of crime.
Furthermore, there is a long standing tight statistical correlation between
crime and unemployment. If the current economic down turn affecting
most EU economies leads to significant rises in unemployment it is likely
that the businesses on BAIPs will see increased incidences of crime and
vandalism against their business premises.
Other negative externalities such as for example pollution, also appeared
to be estimated as being of minor significance: 73% of BAIP managers
reporting that pollution was not a problem. This was reflected in the data
showing regional and local responsibility for regulating pollution.
Negative Externalities on the BAIPs
The strongly decentralised regulatory structure for monitoring and
particularly for enforcing pollution control appears to be effective in the
MITKE members' business areas and business parks. This may be an
area requiring further research and scoping work and it will be interesting
to see if there is a wider and developing interest and concern amongst
7
BAIP managers and businesses on the pollution and waste issue.
However, the survey responses recording incidences of accidents,
parking and congestion problems suggest that pollution problems
resulting from the BAIPs apparent intense dependence on the motor car
may be one area requiring some form of regulatory initiative to manage
negative impacts. By their very nature BAIPs are not necessarily adjacent
to where people live and shift patterns tend to make public transport
initiatives difficult to sustain on business and industrial parks.
Again whilst a significant number (30%) of BAIPs have implemented
accredited quality management systems, there appears to be less
interest in ISO 14001 or environmental management systems. This
suggests there may be scope for some work with the management and
the businesses of the BAIP in raising awareness as well as potentially
implementing environmental management systems. Certainly this could
give a practical aspect to implementing aspect of the Gothenburg agenda
within the MITKE project.
Medium impact
Big impact
No impact
Low impact
13%
7%
73%
7%
Impact of Crime
6
It has been first's experience that
whilst we initially did not feel
that crime was a problem the
feedback from businesses
underlined how much we had
underestimated the direct and
indirect impact that crime was
having on businesses.
7
Indeed, the interests of a
number of partners (for
example, Soprip and first) in
eco-industrial park development
and as well as the growing
general awareness of industrial
symbiosis, where one business'
waste is another's raw material,
suggests that the general
treatment and handling of
businesses' waste matter could
well be a growth sector which
some of the partners may wish
to focus on.
Page 18

There appear to be quite well developed business association and
networking structures active on the BAIPs; most have some form of
activity or linkage into wider support or knowledge systems.
Patterns of specialisation and particularly collaboration on the BAIPs
indicate that there is significant scope as well as basis of institutional
capacity for transferring and diffusing good practice across and within
the MITKE project's BAIP structures. There appears to be also a
considerable capacity and experience to exploit as there is at least 20 full
time and 12 part time staff directly involved in the management of BAIPs.
The responsibilities and experience of the management within the BAIP is
highlighted by their broad roles in marketing and promoting the parks;
managers of the BAIP appear to generally play a significant role in
marketing campaigns promoting their park's offer. This emphasises the
BAIP managers' potentially unique role in promoting a strong and distinct
corporate identity for their BAIP. The MITKE partnership should explore
this further to highlight best practice for promoting and targeting the
market for the BAIPs' offer. The economic down turn and continuing
impact of globalisation (for example, such as off-shoring and the out
sourcing business functions as well as new plants being established in
the BRIIC economies) underline the necessity of BAIP managers to be
more proactive in promoting and planning their BAIP's future.
Positive Externalities on the Parks
Television
Newspapers
Direct
Website
3%
20%
22%
32%
Marketing the BAIP
In addition to providing a general marketing service partners' BAIP
managers appear to provide a broad range of enhanced services for the
businesses on their sites. These range from conference facilities through
to business and health and safety advice. Some BAIPs also offer a wide
portfolio of services that stretch through to cleaning services and
security services, as well as legal advice and training. These services
may well have evolved from an initial offer and it will be interesting to see
if the survey of firms on the BAIP highlights other services or priorities
from businesses' point of view.
8%
15%
Other
Networking

Evidence from the Part Three Survey
The following sections draw on the analysis and discussion of the data
provided by the companies in the Part 3 questionnaire survey of firms
that are based on the MITKE partners' BAIPs. This strand of the research
was aimed at gaining a clear picture of what the businesses on the BAIPs
want, and to better inform the picture of the demand side of the equation.
This is an important aspect of determining the prioritization and final
selection of General Practices to be piloted in BAIPs. The expectation is
that this part of the MITKE Component 3 work analyzing and identifying
Good Practice represents a balancing of the supply side picture gained
from the managers (and others) in Stage 2. In this regard there is an
underlying theoretical assumption namely, that the supply and demand
side are not necessarily synchronized or in balance. This issue warrants
some discussion prior to presenting the results of the Part 3 survey.
The quantity and the quality of the space on a BAIP is functionally related
and determined by the 'offer' (i.e. the basket of "goods" and service that
the park presents) and the perception and the decision of the firms that
locate there or continue to use the site. Within this there are
unmistakable elements of 'path dependence' where advantages and
companies accumulate (and of course vice a versa sometimes) through
deepening infrastructure (roads, rails, skills and educational
developments) and agglomeration and spillover effects from the
interaction of firms amassing on the park. The development of
agglomeration and spillover effects in a locality, whether it is called an
industrial district, business area or industrial park was recognized by
Marshall in the early 1900s as a feature of regional and local economies.
It is an idea which Paul Krugman has updated to show that knowledge
spillover, increasing returns to scale, and pecuniary externalities (through
pools of trained workers, markets for local inputs) drive regional growth.
The Krugman school's argument is that specialization gets locked-in by
cumulative gains from trade, and producing the more specialized region
typical of business and industrial park agglomeration.
Central to the logic as well as the outputs and outcomes of the MITKE
project is that intermediaries can accelerate and improve the extent to
which firms on a BAIP are able to readily accumulate positive 'pecuniary
externalities' advantage in Krugman's economic region. This draws
particular attention to the role and importance of engagement with firms
on BAIPs: flow of information to and from firms is vital to ensuring that
the power and impact of initiatives is fully realized.
Within this dynamic there is also another caveat: the logic of 'path
dependence' can lock in inflexibilities and decline. Thus the manager in a
BAIP needs to take heed that the concentration of accumulated strengths
does not blind them to recognizing the seeds of decay and de-
glomeration associated with the decline of sectors when firms'
advantages become competed away. Certainly the breadth of experience
and range of 'path dependencies' across the MITKE partners helps to
mitigate this problem. The compound effects and impacts of the
international financial crisis and accelerating global competition underline
the need to carefully weigh all these factors in balancing the supply and
demand dynamics on BAIPs. The MITKE project methods lend it the
strengths of a rich dialogue between demand and supply perspectives.
The Part 3 survey was carried out on the MITKE partners' BAIPs with
individual partners distributing (either directly or through agents) the
questionnaires and collecting the completed surveys. This was clearly
quite difficult for many partners who had to carry out multiple follow-up
contacts to ensure a good final return. It is pleasing to report that
partners' efforts ensured that over 140 questionnaires were returned
representing an excellent overall response rate of 20% for such a detailed
and exacting questionnaire.
Whilst the data analysis was carried out using the Statistical Package for
Social Sciences neither first, nor the MITKE partnership make any claim
that the recount below is a statistically valid sample of all business areas
and industrial parks across the European Union. However, the data
collection, analysis and its discussion below have been carried out in a
careful and systematic manner to provide a robust evidence base for the
identification of good practice in the management and development of
the MITKE partners' Business Areas and Industrial Parks (BAIP).
Page 20

The MITKE partners' BAIPs reveal a strong and diverse range of activities
on the parks but with a particular emphasis on manufacturing activities.
It is clear that there is still a strong and vital industrial component to
activity on the MITKE partners' BAIPs. Although the partners' BAIPs have
been selected or proposed by the MITKE partners and thus cannot be
considered to be a scientifically selected sample they are very typical of
the range and type of enterprises found on business and industrial
estates across the EU.
Companies on BAIPs
Manufacturing / metal products
Construction
Professional / technical
Electricity / gas / steam / air con supply
14.4%
4.5%
2.7%
1.8%
Main business activity
2.7%
0.9%
Information and communication
Real estate activities
The size distribution of the companies on the BAIPs is clearly
predominantly Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs) with the
majority of these businesses based primarily in medium sized (i.e.
1,000m2) premises which most of them own.
Manufacturing / textile
Transport and supply
Wholesale / retail trade
Electronic / electrical
2.7%
7.2%
11.7%
2.7%
46.8%
1.8%
Other
Chemical / pharmaceutical
101-500 sqm
0-100 sqm
1001-2500 sqm
501-1000 sqm
20.8%
10%
15.8%
25.8%
Company Floor Space
5%
15%
5001-10000 sqm
2501-5000 sqm
100001+ sqm 7.8%
Rented
Leased
Owned by company
34%
14%
52%
Premises Type

The companies appear to be using their premises in an efficient manner
with most of them having little or no space for expansion, diversification
or additional or complementary activity. The latter could be a constraint
on company expansion and growth of the SMEs. It is also a question that
the management of the BAIPs might usefully explore as an area of
service that they could offer to the businesses, or alternatively get
others, such as developers to offer.
The majority (72%) of firms on the partners' BAIPs are limited
companies. Again this bears out the hallmark of a SME economy on the
parks and highlights the extent to which we should expect business
autonomy and control to be local.
Sole Trader
Limited Company
Cooperative
Subsidiary
18%
72%
5%
5%
Company Status
Thus, in the main the firms on the MITKE partners' BAIPs are enterprises
with relative independence in their decision making and direction, which
appears to rest at the local level rather than at headquarter locations
outside the MITKE partners' regions. This has important implications
both for the engagement process with the companies but also in terms
of the potential responsiveness of the firms to initiatives.
In the language of probability and risk management there is more chance
of these firms being influenced locally, and making decisions that are
locally determined. This contrasts with the case of regions and localities
which are dominated by histories of foreign direct investment, which can
leave the local economy subject to "external control", to decision making
processes outside of local control which academics have typified as
8
"branch plant economies".
Hughie Watts (1981), Seamus Grimes (1993 and 2005) and Andrews
Cumbers (2000) have reflected on the problematic embeddedness of
foreign direct investors' branch plants in regional economies. Ivan Turok
(1993) recorded low levels of linkages and inputs (12% of locally
sourced materials) for the branch plant dominated Scottish electronic
industry.
Doreen Massey (1979) Peter Lloyd (1988) have criticised Firn's and
Watts' work on "external control" arguing that it confuses cause with
effect, i.e. that the branch plant will have been set up to integrate local
comparative advantages into the corporation. However, Watts and his
collaborators (for example, Stafford and Watts, 1993) were also aware of
factoring in the influence and impact of local effects. Indeed, they argued
that local conditions were often the strongest influences on what
happened locally in such branch plants. Stafford and Watts (1993)
compared the closure plants in two metropolitan areas (Cincinnati, USA,
and Sheffield, UK) with plants elsewhere in the USA and UK on twenty-
four differentiating characteristics. They found a local environmental
effect, particularly through the influence of poor labour or industrial
relations.
Certainly, the work of Stafford and Watts underlines a commonplace of
the global economy where corporations' take much broader strategic
perspective on plant performance than, for example, SMEs. This is
particularly the case in an age where an enlarged European Union with a
low cost labour eastern fringe and more open global trade make
business decisions about the opening and closure of plants more fluid
and dynamic.
Globally active businesses have more knowledge and managerial
experience of organising production internationally and are better
9
equipped to exploit locational advantages than indigenous SMEs. In
short, this gives both the appearance and reality of 'branch plants' being
relatively less embedded in the local economy, and also of being more
often at risk of closure than locally owned SME plants.
The debate on external control also had important implications for
regional policy and business support in that they showed that a branch
plant economy could have more shallow local supply chains, and that
the potential for spin-off and multiplier effects might be weaker.
Whilst the MITKE partners BAIPs are not insulated from the global
economy or from the issues associated with hosting major foreign
owned enterprises it is clear that in the main they exemplify an economic
and sectoral milieu typified by SMEs; their structural problems and their
business needs.
8
The literature was exemplified by
the work of Firn in the 1970s
concerning the embedded-ness
of foreign direct investment in
the Scottish economy, which
highlighted the limits for local
action given that in some
sectors "60 per cent of the
ownership and control of
manufacturing employment lies
in other regions of the United
Kingdom and overseas". Watts
in the 1980s and 1990s also
argued that branch plant
economies dominated by FDI
plants often did not have the
expected level of agglomeration
impacts, i.e. supply chain
linkages that would be typical
where such firms were local
enterprises.
9
Some researchers such as
Morgan (2004) and Mariotti et al
(2008) have noted spill over
effects from international firms
and branch plants on local
SMEs such that the latter 'learn'
and emulate the international
activity of the 'branch plant'.
Page 22

When the MITKE project commenced there were few if any signs of the
impending economic crisis that was to hit the global economies like a
sudden storm. The speed and impact of the economic downturn threw
many businesses and business support organisations into crisis
response. The economic recession began and was defined by a crisis in
the banking sector finance, and cash flow has been the defining issue for
many companies in the crisis. This has certainly been evident in the
responses from businesses on the MITKE partners' BAIPs.
Top responses for the impacts of recession highlighted: problems with
falling sales (42%), cash flow as a major issue (37%), and problems
with rising costs (32.4%). In terms of action to assist firms BAIP
companies ranked faster payments by debtors (58.9%), and reductions
in taxation bills (45.3%), and utility costs (34.1%) as the most important
issues.
Examining the companies' responses to the crisis provided further
insight into the nature and depth of the crisis. A major economic
recession is typically a period where firms that are essentially
economically sound and would normally survive, end up going out of
business. A quarter of respondents said that would cut back on staff
numbers as well as working hours (27.9%) in the short term (i.e. within
6 months). Over half (52.4%) planned to reduce investment on plant and
machinery, and almost a third (32%) planned cut backs in training.
However, only a very small percentage (2.5%) predicted a danger of
ceasing trading. More typical of a recession just over half of companies
planned to cut the price of their goods and services.
Companies' needs in recession have emphasised assistance with finance
and cash flow as areas where they would benefit from: almost two thirds
(64.5%) highlighted assistance with financial support, and assistance
with the banks as key areas of support that they wanted. Businesses
were keen for central government action in the form of tax breaks,
reduced VAT levels and business rates,
In general, the information from the questionnaires, and feedback from
MITKE partners indicated that the impact of the recession on firms in the
BAIPs was perhaps not as severe as many had expected. This is borne
out by more recent positive prognoses for the economic recovery in the
global economy as well as better news on the national economies of the
10
MITKE partners'.
Needs in Recession? In short, the firms on the MITKE partners' BAIPs have shown good
resilience and strength in the face of severe economic challenges. This
should hopefully provide a good springboard for the firms' healthy
growth next year.
Turning to broader business issues, the four most important business
issues for firms on the BAIPs were: customers (57.7%), access to
finance (42.3%), competition (27.3%), and access to skilled labour
(25.8%). These are classic business support issues. Local and regional
support agencies wishing to engage with the companies in terms of any
specific pilot initiative will have to bear these in mind and be able to
respond as the businesses may well have needs in these areas.
More generally it highlights the type of core activity and service focus
that will be needed in terms of on-going support and aftercare to
companies on the BAIPs.
Specialist business issues also featured as important service areas
reflecting the new pressures and priorities that businesses face from
competition in globalised markets. Thus 21 companies also gave
research and development a high ranking showing that there is
considerable interest in BAIP residents in support of this area. Whilst the
companies responding tended to be located in more specialist parks it
does show that there is demand for these types of high order services on
BAIPs. Another 18 companies highlighted energy costs as a key issue.
Thus these business priorities reflect both the "bread-and-butter"
concerns as well as the rising economic factors that will be increasingly
important in the business environment of BAIPs.
Finally where do the businesses expect to find the source of support to
overcome these issues? Whilst most businesses (41%) expect to
resolve these issues themselves from internal sources many expect
regional agencies, private consultancies or universities to be the source
of their support. Clearly the nature and scale of these issues highlights
that one solution will not fit all and that engagement with the businesses
on the BAIPs needs to be sufficiently flexible and responsive to deliver
solutions that suit the particular business' problem.
Business Issues and Business Prospects
10
For example, in August the
International Monetary Funds'
chief economist Olivier
Blanchard stated: 'The recovery
has started', noting growth
would return to most
economies in the second half of
2009, or in early 2010. He
cautioned that the economic
recovery would be lengthy and
slow.

The companies are predominantly in the small to medium sized
distribution.
Numbers Employed 11-50
Numbers Employed 250+
43.7%
40%
2.2%
14.1%
Company Employment Size Distribution
Late 20th century and early 21st century demographics appear in the
main to be quite conservative with a general trend towards smaller family
sizes and to less young people entering the labour market (both because
there are less of them as well as many more staying on longer at school
and college). Given the relative demographic stability of most MITKE
partners' labour market catchment areas this underscores the
importance of seeking to move the skills base of existing workers
upwards, and not merely to adopt policies of importing or pulling high
skilled labour into the BAIPs.
Actions on developing the overall skills and training capacity of the firms
on the BAIPs are more likely to meet and match with a strong demand
from the companies on the parks. The fact that many companies
highlighted access to skilled labour as a problem as well as noting that
this is an area that they are likely to cut back on in the next six months
underscores both the need and the potential for concerted action on this
issue on the BAIPs.
It is suggested that the area of joint training and workforce development
on BAIPs be identified as a good practice for copying and transferring. In
this regard there are some training practices at a number of BAIPs that
might be transferred.
Skills & Labour
The part 3 survey evidence on skills and qualifications reveals the
primary importance of skilled and semi-skilled labour on the partners'
BAIPs. In the main the mass of jobs and skills are focused on
manufacturing and industrial processing, and it is likely that the core
employment and skills base of the BAIPs will remain skilled and semi-
skilled. However, it also has to be acknowledged that the sectoral and
skills' orientation of some BAIPs is completely skewed to high skill and
jobs. On two specialist technology parks in Ireland and Poland the
emphasis is on technology and R&D functions and the skills profile is
mainly graduate and post-graduate level.
In most economies the mass of the population's skills will be
concentrated in the skilled and semi-skilled segment. The structure of
skills on the MITKE partners' BAIPs highlights an important policy and
operational practicality: the importance of BAIPs' accessibility to large
labour markets. In this regard it is also clear to balance the attraction and
retention of high skill workforces with focusing on medium level skilled
staff. The catchments or hinterland area for most BAIPs tends to be close
and also quite homogenous in respect of the mix of skills available to
most BAIPs.
A secure and safe environment is a pre-condition, indeed, almost a
presumption about the nature of the quality of any BAIP. Most companies
and their workforces expect BAIPs to be crime and disorder free.
Unfortunately this is not always what happens and many BAIPs
experience periodic instances of disruptive criminal activity or persistent
anti-social behaviour which creates unproductive and or opportunity
costs for businesses on BAIPs.
Business activity, and BAIPs (often because they are standalone sites
distant from densely populated places) frequently attract the attentions of
'professional' or career criminals, opportunistic thieves or individuals
who see them as 'easy pickings' for acquisitive actions.
Most of the firms (93.5%) on the parks have some form, or multiple
forms of security measures: alarms, internal and external CCTV, security
fencing, security guards, etc in place to safeguard their enterprises. Yet
whilst businesses are clearly aware of the issue, and that it is an integral
part of business to safeguard and protect assets, few appear to have a
good grasp as to how to get the best out of these essentially
uncoordinated investments.
Crime & Security
Page 24

Partner 8's experience is that security measures is the one area of
business where few if any companies make the classic cost-benefit
assessments of the investment or monitor their effectiveness over the
medium to long run that they would perform for any other significant
investment decision. Incidents of crime and, or vandalism tend to prompt
precipitate action rather than thought-through strategies for successful,
economically efficient prevention of the impact of crime on the business.
Indeed, despite the gains (and low business or commercial risk) from
cooperation in this area few businesses appear to be acting collectively
or proactively to ensure the safety of their workforces or business.
This may be an area for action to pilot on BAIPs to see if simple contact
networks can be used to reduce the incidence and the impact (i.e. catch
or interrupt it in the act) of criminal, anti-social or disruptive behaviour on
enterprises on the BAIP. The concentration and contiguousness of firms
on the BAIPs offers them the advantage of readily and at low transaction
costs being able to act as buddies for their neighbours.
Again this is an area of good practice where an existing base of practical
experience and example on a member BAIP that could be piloted and
transferred.
Whilst the questionnaire responses highlight some awareness and
availability of waste recycling facilities on BAIPs there is no clear picture
of the businesses on the BAIPs considering this a priority business issue.
The complexity of the topic and the fact that the scale of waste issue is
so large requiring major capital investment, points to external agencies
and the management of the park taking a more proactive lead on the
matter.
In this regard MITKE partners must raise more awareness on the BAIPs of
the waste issue and particularly around tackling the problem through
waste hierarchy of the Waste Framework Directive which emphasises
prioritisation of action from waste prevention to re-use, recycling and
13
composing, energy recovery and disposal.
One small practical starting point with businesses on the BAIPs might be
to tackle the topic through a related or complementary theme, such as
reducing the litter problem on the BAIP by ensuring that all BAIP
occupants control at source the waste that their processes or workforces
produce. Such an approach would have the twin advantage of helping to
tackle the litter problem which garnered the highest ranking (27.8%) in
terms of environmental problems on the BAIPs as well as raise
awareness on the waste issue through a practical problem solving action.
Environment
Successive tightening on landfill directives and waste policy by the EU
(for example, the 2005 revisions of the original 1975 Waste Framework
Directive) makes waste an increasing problem and cost for businesses
across the European Union. Business waste is a crucial problem for all
modern economies and especially for BAIPs.
In the UK typically businesses account for 26% of the total tonnage of
11
waste generated within a local authority area Of this weight the
heaviest amount (75% of total) is contributed by industry rather than
commerce. Given the preponderance of industrial and manufacturing
activity in the MITKE partners' BAIPs it is clear that the cost base of the
firms on the BAIPs will increase in respect of their disposal of waste.
As taxation of landfill waste increases the reduction of waste becomes a
major business problem. Thus reducing waste, increasing the amount of
waste recycled, and making use of suitable portions of the waste as
material for producing other products is becoming a growing feature of
modern economies and is likely to be a distinct area of economic activity
in its own right on BAIPs. Across the European Union a series of landfill
12
regulations have seen the tightening of restrictions on the amount of the
waste that can go into landfill sites. Taxes and the cost of using landfill
sites will pressure businesses to recycle and re-use or divert waste.
Energy
Energy costs have increased over the past decade and despite the relative
relenting of price rises during the recession energy costs are set for
continuing increases ahead of average inflation rates over the long run.
The short term energy outlook reflects a weak demand for oil and other
energy as a result of the economic downturn recovery but already the
demand and price movements are upward and set to increase over the
14
medium to long run.
Action on energy costs and energy sources is likely to be a feature of
business life on BAIPs over the coming decades. Above we highlighted
that a significant number of companies had ranked this a priority business
issue. This is an area that is likely to be at the cutting edge of good
practice for all businesses and one that would merit more extensive
development and a stream of action within this project.
Already some firms on the MITKE BAIPs (for example, on Langthwaite
Business Park in the UK) are taking action to reduce energy use, to
diversify their energy sources, and to recycle "waste" energy.
Again this could be an area of emerging good practice that could be
cascaded and transferred to other enterprises and BAIPs.
11
Here we use Wakefield as the
reference point where
Hazardous waste is 3%,
Agricultural: 10%, Municipal:
13%, Industrial and Commercial
26%, and Construction and
Demolition 48%. Clearly there
will be variation across the
MITKE partners in the relative
balance of these waste
streams.
12
For example, reflecting EU
Landfill Directive (1999/31/EC)
UK legislation, notably: The
Landfill (England and Wales)
Regulations 2002, The Landfill
(England and Wales)
(Amendment) Regulations
2004, The Landfill (England and
Wales) (Amendment)
Regulations 2005 saw
successive decreases in the
target amounts of waste
allowed to go into landfill sites.
13
The Waste Hierarchy is
described in the form of an
inverted triangle where waste
prevention is the fat base and
the area of greatest effort and
disposal is the apex.
14
The US government's Energy
Information Administration
notes that crude oil prices will
stay roughly flat (at $70 per
barrel) in the second half of
2009 after the rise of $27 from
the beginning of the year, with
small increases (an additional
$2 per barrel) likely in 2010.
However, it predicts rising
demand, particularly from the
BRIIC economies will see:
"rising real oil prices over the
long term" (Annual Energy
Outlook 2009, EIA, 2009). The
OECD's International Energy
Agency has shown resurgent
rises in energy prices in the
second half of 2009 and
foresees a general long run rise
in energy prices ahead of
average inflation rates.

Access to a BAIP is a critical aspect of their ability as a location to attract
and sustain productive activity and labour supply. With the latter it is
clear that currently most BAIPs are accessed by their workforces mainly
via motor car and that this is already creating instances of congestion at
peak commuting hours as well as in terms of the transport functionality
of the BAIPs.
Transport problems are clearly an issue on the MITKE BAIPs with the top
issues for firms ranging from access to the park (53.9%), congestion
(35.4%), parking (35.2%) and public transport (29.2%). The overlap of
these issues, pervasiveness and seriousness of the problem highlights
the need for a concerted approach to resolve them and the need for a
local or regional gatekeeper to intervene. The key intervention axis that
the firms focused on was public transport to improve sustainability of the
park (75.8%) showing a clear awareness that people's motor cars are
part of the problem and public transport a solution.
There appears to be a widespread instance of transport issues as a
problem across MITKE partners' BAIPs, and that this as a problem where
good practice could should be identified and transferred.
Transport
There is a clear interest in business network and associations managing
the parks across a range of service areas: over a third (34.8%) of
companies expressed an interest in joining a business network
association. Two thirds of the companies rank grant funding assistance
(66.7%) as the most important type of service and the priority that they
would want to receive from a business network association. Other
services that companies believe a business association should prioritise
include: skills and training (31.3%), assistance with planning issues
(28.4%), R&D and technical assistance (26.9%), and marketing advice
(25.3%).
There are two strong and contrasting expectations as to how a BAIP
business association should be controlled or organised. On the one hand
there is the belief (40.7% of respondents) that the association should
manage the park compared to expectations that local (38.9%) or regional
(22.2%) authorities should lead this. Clearly there are ways in which the
sentiments and expectation behind these answers could be achieved so
as to satisfy the businesses that a genuine and responsive partnership
service is offered.
Across the MITKE partners there are a variety of organisational modes to
facilitate business associations on and for the management of BAIPs.
Models of partnership and organisation certainly appear to be an area of
good practice that could and should be developed for potential piloting
and transferring across MITKE partners.
In this regard some of the findings (for example, in respect of managing
and tracking relations with companies on the BAIP through use of Client
Relationship Management systems) of the Part 2 survey of BAIP
managers are also relevant here as they highlight aspects of how the
business association's relations with its business clients should be
professionally managed.
Business Networks and the Management of the
BAIP
Page 26

The development of a business association is one stage to assuring the
long run success and sustainability of a BAIP. This is a key concern for
BAIPs as over time they will evolve, change and sometimes decline as
businesses leave the park whether through failure, growth or change of
their locational strategy.
Business networks and the management structures developing a park
are frequently pump-primed by the funds that develop and project
manage the start-up of the park. However, these arrangements become
problematic over the lifetime of the park and especially for example such
as European Regional Development Funds (ERDF) where the funding
arrangements are essentially to start the project. It is clear that a number
of MITKE partners propose to expand their park using ERDF funding so
life after the funding regime will be critically important for these as well
as other MITKE partners' BAIPs.
It is clear that an area of good practice for the management and
development of BAIPs must be models for the sustainability of the BAIP.
In this regard a range of partner experience could provide key insights
and lessons for piloting and transfer across the MITKE project.
One specific example in this regard is the experience of UK industrial
estates that have developed a Business Improvement District (BID). The
relevance of the BID experience for BAIPs is explored below.
Sustaining the BAIP - Mechanisms of Support &
Funding Economists tend to see infrastructure in its broadest sense and to
include essential factors such as education and institutional provisions
that underwrite and sustain the more hardware based definitions of
infrastructure such as roads, railways and telecommunications. Indeed,
the building of roads and high speed telecommunications facilities are in
themselves only pre-conditions to economic activity; they need to be
complemented by other skills and activities which turn their potential to
15
productivity gains, and real economic growth and value.
For most of the firms (84.9%) there was ready access to broadband
networks. However, a significant cohort (27.7%) had concerns about the
quality of broadband service indicating that there were still technical and
service issues to overcome and that the quality of infrastructure was
variable across MITKE partners' BAIPs. This could be a critical issue for
such BAIPs. The potential diversification or attraction of firms that are
heavily reliant on high quality telecommunications may be at risk due to
poor, or unreliable services. More dynamic, high skill based and high
technology based firms may avoid such locations.
Most MITKE partners, their development or national agencies will have
ensured that their BAIPs are serviced by broadband technologies;
generally as part of their efforts to ensure their region and nation has a
modern infrastructure capable of supporting modern business activities.
However, evidence from firms responding in the MITKE survey suggest
that quality of service in broadband technology is a problem and one
which the management of the BAIPs need to be able to resolve. There
may be a number of potential causes to this problem whether within the
telecom network provider, the implementation of the broadband
technology or the third party service company connecting the company
to the broadband network. What is clear is that the problem points to an
incomplete implementation and support framework for the technology
and an area that requires intervention.
Indeed, it is this type of problem solving task that the management or a
business association on a BAIP can have considerable impact and
success. Putting pressure on a telecom provider on behalf of a number
of them over service issues is likely to have more impact than single
companies complaining. It is also a good way for the management or a
business association on a BAIP to demonstrate that they are adding
value.
Infrastructure
15
As Shui and Lam (2008) show
the availability of broadband
telecoms is mainly a pre-
condition for growth and that
economic development in new
and more advanced sector
depends on wider
complementary factors such as
business environments,
transportation networks,
education and manpower
training in order to make the
best use of the
telecommunications.

Key Characteristics of the Partners’ BAIPs
The partners' BAIPs key characteristics can be summarised as
follows:
1. Industrial parks are relatively recent economic phenomena (the last
100 years) and the majority of the MITKE partners' industrial parks
are relatively young (ten years old or less), with a significant number
(about one) of them still in development.
2. Partners' spatial contexts reflect the geography of regions that have
gone through successive economic changes, with many MITKE
partners' BAIPs displaying the transformational changes typical of
the regeneration of "old industrial areas"; namely a shift away from
mass manufacturing.
3. The partners' BAIPs reflect a diversity of experience and progress
that offers a 'laboratory' of experimentation to test and explore
different models of good practice in the management and
development of BAIPs.
4. Partners' BAIPs have a wide range of scale and economic activity
ranging from micro-enterprises to large firms on small and large
sites (185 hectares to 1 hectares) and still with a substantial
manufacturing activity as well as high technology activity.
5. The BAIPs are in the main located within what are predominantly
16
urban regions, with still strong industrialised traditions, albeit a
number have a much more rural setting reflecting the continuing
importance of agriculture in their regional economies.
6. MITKE partners function within a strong regional policy agenda
where their parks have been developed to stimulate economic growth
and employment. Indeed, most have been explicitly founded largely
as a result of publicly led initiatives from some context or motivation
of overcoming market failure.
7. The majority of the parks are host to mainly SMEs rather than large
scale businesses that were typical of industrial parks in the 1960s
and 1970s.
8. Most of the partners' parks have, or are attempting to encourage
knowledge-based, technological or R&D bias, reflecting the partners'
efforts to stimulate innovative activities within their BAIPs or regions.
9. The partners are trying to attract new businesses and especially
dynamic sectors and firms to their BAIPs.
10. The partners are seeking to improve the functionality of their parks by
expanding their offer of higher order services or value added services
to existing as well as new businesses on the BAIP.
16
Commission Staff Working
Document accompanying the
Green Paper on "Territorial
Cohesion, Turning Territorial
Diversity into Strength",
Brussels, 2008, page 13.
Page 28

The Key Advantages
of the BAIPs
The Part 2 questionnaires final sections focused on the partners'
assessments of their current strengths and their plans for the future
revealing a wide range of strengths and concerns but also reflecting
strong common and emergent themes.
In terms of the key advantage identified by the partners the following
stand out as the strongest common themes:
?Quality of Infrastructure
?Location
Throughout partners' responses there was a resonance on the
importance of the quality of facilities and accessibility as being their
greatest strength or advantage. Clearly the sites are not suffering from a
fundamental "hinterland" problem, i.e. that the sites have outlived their
usefulness as a business location. This is important as many of the sites
have come from a background of major job loss where they have been
established as growth poles to attract new economic activity.
Around these core themes other major strands concern: cost
advantages, availability of business advice and support, diversity of
businesses, and access to high skilled or specialist labour. In the latter
this ranged from the very specific labour force benefits typical of being in
an 'old' but still functioning agglomeration of the aviation sector and the
access to aviation engineering skills, to higher ordered knowledge
capacity in the form of university, scientific and technical skills.
From these responses and cross reference with other responses it is
clear that a key issue for all the parks is to attract new businesses as
well as sustain existing businesses to their locations. Given the
preponderance of advice and support services available on many of the
parks it is clear that they cater for indigenous as well as inward
investors.
The Immediate Future of
the MITKE Partners’ BAIPs
The MITKE partners have identified a series of issues for their next twelve
months which highlights the pressing demands of current economic
circumstances and the imperatives of sustaining the attractiveness of
their park's facilities but also ensuring their long run viability. In the
section on methodology above we noted the EURADA document where
(chiefly EURADA, 2008) regional development practitioners had
emphasised the interplay between macro (national economies), meso
(regional) and micro (the business park-enterprise level) challenges. It is
clear from partners' observations that many are concerned about the
impact of the credit crunch in a number of crucial aspects:
?Scale of public resources to invest in sustaining developments
?Businesses retention on the BAIPs
?Supporting businesses on BAIPs
?Attracting businesses to their parks.
Whilst these may appear to be perennial issues for the managers of
BAIPs and they are further underlined by the types of cost impacts which
SMEs on BAIPS face, notably around:
?Energy costs
?Retention of labour and the cost of labour
?Security
?Infrastructure improvement (roads as well as ICT).
It is also clear that some BAIPs face unusual regional circumstances
which may be irresolvable. For example, currency and taxation
differences (between the Irish Euro zone and £ Sterling zone) have
created significant business and economic problems.
There are common themes as well as diversity in these issues, which
essentially represent the current work programme for the managers on
the BAIPs, and that clearly point up some of the key development needs
of the managers; for example, the need to improve their capacity to
market and make the case for the advantages of their park to businesses.

MITKE Good Practice Aug 2010

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