Source: www.oecd.org

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development OECD has recently released a territorial review on the Venice city-region, which comprises the city and Province of Venice, its lagoon and 117 islands as well as the Provinces of Padua and Treviso.

It’s an international, positive acknowledgment for this metropolitan region: the review explains that this 2.6-million-people area has been able to create an interconnected city-region which deserves being further developed and creating synergies in a poly-centric system.

The review underlines that the Venice city-region is one of the largest Italian economies and one of the most successful areas in the world as for tourism. We would like to underline that the high amount of visits might derive not only from the charming city of Venice, but also from the landscape and artistical beauties of the whole Veneto region, and food and wine and sports events.
Furthermore, this area boosts a traditional export-oriented manufacturing vocation.

The OECD goes on to assess the city-region’s economy and enumerates a high productivity rate, a per capita GDP close to the average of other OECD metropolitan regions and a low unemployment rate (3.5%, according to 2008 figures). The employment rate is similar to that of big capitals such as Brussels, Vienna and Seoul, while the unemployment rate is lower than richer regions like San Diego, Melbourne, Phoenix, Tokyo or Washington D.C.

A negative aspect is detected related to innovation indicators: this area registers a low percentages of young graduates (9.5%), low expenses in R&D (0.72% of GDP in 2003, compared to the European average of 1.97%).

Some recommendations are then proposed to enhance some of the mentioned parameters: much importance is put on the relations between universities and firms and on business development in SMEs, which are basic aspects to foster innovation-oriented development.
Horizontal co-operation as for tourism, environment and infrastructures is observed as fundamental among the areas within the metropolitan area.

The strength of Venice city-region – that is, a high SMEs concentration and a successful network of industrial clusters, both based on strong local communities and an export-oriented economic system – forms the basis of further, real development, which should be built on the capitalisation of typically local entrepreneurism, flexibility and cosmopolitanism, with an eye also to land and water issues.

The review’s abstract and table of contents can be consulted on the OECD official website.

Summary by trevisosystem.com