 |
|
 |
The Lyon Game cluster , future "Hollywood of digital leisure
" (Rhône-Alpes, France)
The
Lyon conurbation contains more than 40% of the French video-game
companies, as well as major publisher-distributors and around
a hundred innovative small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs)
which represent more than 70% of the sector's jobs. According
to Pierre Carde, Director of the Lyon Game enterprise association,
"Lyon is the European capital of the video game!"
This cluster of 40 companies supports their development by action
in various fields: training, links with international buyers,
finance and technology. In sharing their database of buyers,
the companies in the cluster have created an international event
"The Game Connection", which in 2 years has become
the European rendezvous for the financing of video-game projects.
"Lyon Game" has also set up a network of training
professionals working directly with industrialists to design
training sessions. This project, called GAMAGORA, has already
launched a common training programme to facilitate access to
the video-game industry. "This shared project in HR and
skills management represents a real stake for the cluster, as
it gives a structure to this still-developing sector" said
Pierre Carde.
For more information: the Lyon
Game site or the Game
Connection site. Contact: pcarde@lyongame.com
This experiment in training offers an opportunity to recall
the decisions
of the CIADT of July 2001 to promote common HR and
Training programmes, following the agreement
between the Ministry of Employment and the DATAR to support
LPSs. For more information, contact CDIF
xavierroy@wanadoo.fr. |
|
|
|
 |
 |
|
The Metaladour LPS, the inter-regional centre
for metalworking industries (Aquitaine/Midi-Pyrénées,
France)
Metalworking
is the primary industrial activity of the Adour region, with 22
000 jobs. The principal companies are Turbomeca, Dassault Aviation,
EADS Socata, Messier Dowty, Alstom's Transport Division and GIAT
Industries.
In the current era of globalisation, technological constraints and
heavy pressure on prices, these firms were obliged to join forces
in order to be more competitive, particularly to confront the global
purchasing strategies of their customers. To develop this project,
the Chambres Syndicales de la Métallurgie des Hautes-Pyrénées
et des Pyrénées-Atlantiques combined in 2001 to launch
the Metaladour LPS, incorporating 56 companies.
Common actions and projects are communication, industrial fairs,
a web site, joint contacts with customers and exchanges with other
clusters. Metaladour also provides help with projects to do with
the formation of specific groups of suppliers. The inter-regional
framework of the LPS (covering two Regions and two Départements)
shows that industrial initiatives are indeed the source of this
network. In fact it is the industrialized area that defines the
boundaries of the LPS.
The centre receives strong public support from government, the Aquitaine-Midi-Pyrénées
Region, the Départements of Hautes-Pyrénées
and Pyrénées-Atlantiques, and the Communal Association
of Bayonne-Anglet-Biarritz as well as Pau and Tarbes.
For more information: www.metaladour.com
ou contact@metaladour.com
We welcome the Metaladour LPS to the French Industrial District
Club (CDIF) which it joined in 2003.
|
|
|
OPCAREGs interested in LPSs (France)
The
OPCAREGs are regional organizations linked to the MEDEF (the French
Enterprises Association) which provide national representation for
all large, medium and small enterprises in the industrial, commercial
and service sectors. The OPCAREG network organised a seminar on
September 11 and 12 in Châlons-en-Champagne (Champagne-Ardennes),
assembling all its members to discuss the development of their activities.
The OPCAREGs collect and manage the different training requirements
of their members and help them to finance their training programmes.
They currently hope to expand towards the provision of additional
activities, such as providing services to enable their members to
develop.
The CDIF (the French Industrial District Club) was invited to make
a presentation on the roles and significance of the LPSs in different
regions.
In their new strategy, OPCAREGs have as an objective the promotion
of regional collective projects and help for enterprises in their
search for and use of local resources. For more information on the
OPCAREG organization see www.opcareg.org.
Details of local OPCAREGs: ipco@opcareg.org.
|
|
|
Request for information about best practice
in the management of industrial waste
The
Normandy Industrial Shipbuilding Centre (Le Havre, France)
has launched a study of the collective management (storage, collection,
treatment etc.) of industrial waste with its network of companies.
The objective is to establish standards and help local companies
to comply with regulations, as well as finding common solutions
to lower the cost of waste disposal. The Centre would like to share
information on best practices already proposed on that subject.
For information contact Martine Falck at pi2n@wanadoo.fr.
|
|
|
Developing clusters in Eastern Europe
On
10 September three French experts on LPSs from the Datar, the Comité
d'expansion de Basse-Normandie, and the ADECO-Pays du Bocage were
invited by the regional authorities of Latvijas in Latvia to make
a presentation on the French policy concerning LPSs. Two actual
cases were used as illustrations: the Vallée
des Alliages LPS and Quincaillerie
de Tinchebray LPS in Lower Normandy. The exchanges with
Lithuania, Estonia, Latvia and Finland covered the development of
clusters, the role of the State in the process and, for future members
of the EC, how to use European structural funds for these projects.
|
|
 |
 |
 |
|
NOGENTECH, a LPS from a traditional industry
oriented toward the future (Champagne-Ardennes, France)
With
300 years of know-how in the metal conversion industry, the Nogent
region is known for its cutlery manufacturing (knives, scissors,
manicure tools etc.)
Today 65 companies representing more than 1500 jobs and around 19
million euros of turnover are grouped in the NOGENTECH association.
Its objective is to assemble competencies and respond to technical,
economic and ecological needs and issues in its area. A "local
agreement" on ecological issues was ratified by 49 companies
and institutional partners last April (for only the second time
in France). The Symben (the Syndicat Mixte du Bassin d'Emploi de
Nogent), which is the leader and co-ordinator of the LPS, ensures
the implementation of the initiatives proposed by NOGENTECH. Several
projects are under study or consideration.
For more information: Nogentech
website
Contact: contact@nogentech.com
or Fabienne Raullet of the Symben: symben@wanadoo.fr.
|
|
|
Inauguration of Numerica, the multimedia centre
of Franche-Comté (France)
The
Montbéliard district has laid emphasis since 1995 on the
development of digital technologies, especially for their industrial
applications. Numerica, the multimedia centre of Franche-Comté,
inaugurated last June, is a network of enterprises, laboratories,
students, artists, and designers working in multimedia, radio and
television and digital technologies. The Numerica Centre houses
an enterprise association, Franche-Comté Interactive (incorporating
24 SMEs and 110 jobs) which drives and co-ordinates the network.
Its objectives are to promote co-operation between enterprises for
sharing resources and communication in France and outside. The Centre
is setting up a "technology know-how and skills display window"
and is working at the moment with Switzerland in a European programme,
Interreg
IIIa.
For more information : Franche
Comté Interactive site, Numérica
site.
Contact: Thierry Serdet, Agency for Development and Urbanism t.serdet@numerica-pm.net.
|
|
|
Formal Launch of SBI Cluster Programme in
Alleppy (India)
The
State Bank of India (SBI), under the UPTECH Project, is formally
launching its work in the Coir cluster of Alleppy in mid July. This
has been initiated jointly with UNIDO (United Nations Industrial
Development Organization) under the Project Support to Country Effort
to Promote SME Cluster Development. Mr. Abraham Joseph, the Cluster
Development Agent at Alleppy, has done a remarkable job in forming
over 50 consortia at grassroots level, enabling them to realise
savings in raw material procurement. The new approach by SBI UPTECH
in Alleppy is interesting in that it goes well beyond focussing
on techno-economic feasibility studies. The ensuing impact over
a span of a few months has convinced policy makers in Kerala that
the business network and cluster model offers considerable potential
for enhancing the competitiveness of small and micro firms.
For more information contact Abraham Joseph at hildaabraham@yahoo.co.uk
(Source: Cluster e-News July 2003 - Unido)
|
 |
 |
|
New LPS projects supported in France
At
the meeting the National Commission for LPSs on 30 June 2003, organised
by the DATAR and presided over by Jean-Pierre Aubert (representative
of the joint ministerial body on Restructuring and Defence), two
new projects for LPSs were presented. The first concerns the creation
of a World Observatory of Nature in Grasse (Alpes-Maritimes),
the town known as the world capital of perfume. The second project
concerns the strengthening of the Embroidery LPS in the Cambrésis
(Nord-Pas-de-Calais/Picardie).
|
|
|
The innovative actions programme of the DG
Region in cluster development - the example of Flevoland (Netherlands)
The
European Commission has approved a grant of 2 million euros to a
regional programme of innovative actions in Flevoland. During the
course of 2003-2004, this European finance will attract an additional
0.8 million euros in public and private investment. The programme
's main objectives are: supporting technology firms, creation of
industrial districts in growing economic sectors, and support for
regional projects. In France, 15 regions have set up innovative
action programmes. For more information: see régional
programmes.
|
|
|
Regions support the development of industries:
e.g. the wood industry in the Massif Central (France)
Last
May, an important public plan of action (2003-2006) was adopted
to support the development of the wood industry in the Massif Central.
This industry draws on 2.6 million hectares of forests which provide
6 million cubic metres of marketable wood per year. 70 000 jobs
are involved, directly and indirectly. The three main objectives
are:
1- to structure the industry
2- to develop relationships between enterprises
3- to launch a programme of recruitment, training and research.
Several private and public bodies, federations and associations
are associated with the different phases of this action plan. Examples
are the setting up of a logistics base, a common approach to exports,
the creation of an economic and business monitoring organisation,
the recruitment of a team manager, etc. Read
the plan of action (available on the site of the Préfecture
de Corrèze) which gives a list of the partners involved in
each initiative.
|
 |
 |
|
Upcoming events |
| |
|
A
few rendezvous dates for Autumn 2003, listed by sector
Special offers are available for companies registered in the
French
Industrial District Club's database of LPSs. Please contact
Denis Tirel, tel: 01 41 86 41 20; dtirel@adhes.com
>> The Cosmetic
Valley welcomes three events in September:
- Cosmetech Meetings, international business meeting on Perfume
and Cosmetics, Chartres (France) - 23-24 September 2003 - www.cosmetech.net.
- Chiminov, thirteenth business conference on fine chemistry
and chemical specialities, Chartres (France) - 23-24 September 2003
- www.chiminov.com
- ProcessPharma 2003, Business conference on equipment, processes
and solutions for pharmaceutics and industrial biology, Dreux (France)
- 24-25 September 2003 - www.processpharma.com
>> The Alençon
Plastics Conversion Industries Centre welcomes Plastimart
Europe, the European market rendezvous for plastics conversion
industries, Alençon (France) - 24-25 September 2003 - www.plastimart.org
>> The electrical
equipment LPS for the Pyrenees welcomes DéciElec,
the fifth meeting of the specialist conference devoted to on-board
systems, Tarbes (France) - 24-25 September 2003 - www.decielec.com
>> ProFood 2003, ninth conference on industrial processes
for agribusiness, Nantes (France) - 23-24 September 2003 - www.profoodmeetings.com
>> Décibois, international conference for the
wood industry, Ussel (France) - 25-26 September 2003 - www.decibois.net
|
| |
|
Fifth
"Clusterland" meeting - 25 September 2003, Austria
The fifth annual Clusters conference will be held on 25 September
in Austria. Eight clusters will present their work, knowledge, best
practice and networks in the fields of health,
wood-furniture,
mechatronik,
car
manufacturing, the
plastics industry, clean
energy and food.
Discussions will be held on the development of clusters. The DATAR
will present French policies in favour of LPSs. For more information
see www.clusterland.at.
|
| |
Publications |
| |
|
www.France-emballage.org
The five French packaging LPSs which signed a co-operation
agreement in 2002 (see LPS
Info 9) have created a common web portal, www.France-emballage.org.
Its main objectives are to offer professionals a directory of all
the major packaging market players in France, and to develop relationships
within this dynamic field. The web site is also available to anyone
who wants to find out more about the profession and the industries.
Contact Jean-Christophe Boulard (Atlanpack) info@atlanpack.com
The five LPSs are: Atlanpack
(Cognac), Breizpack
(Quimper), CEPIEC
(Dijon), Packaging
Valley (Troyes) and Rhône-Alpes Packaging (Lyon)
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
>>
To subscribe
>> To stop
your subscription
>> To subscribe
a partner
>> To send us your
observations or suggest us a theme to develop in the
next letter
>>
To read the previous numbers of LPS Info : N°1,
N°2,
N°3,
N°4,
N°5,
N°6,
N°7,
N°8,
N°8bis,
N°9,
N°10,
N°11
>> Pour recevoir SPL INFO en français
|
|
|
