Regional smart specialisation strategies implementation: Lessons for the Kaliningrad Region

Maciej Tarkowski
Dr., Assistant Professor
Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Gdańsk
Poland

Regional smart specialisation strategies are a European Union cohesion policy tool implemented starting from the EU long-term budget 2014–2020. Entrepreneurial discovery processes are the foundation of smart specialisations. These processes are based on a sequence of experiments and improvements in which the unique knowledge and experience of regional actors derived from long-term specialisation are combined with inventions and technological innovations. This combination makes it possible to significantly upgrade offered products and services or create a whole new range of products and services based on unique combinations of traditional and new production factors (economies of scope).

Regional development in the model of smart specialisation is a sequence of entrepreneurial discovery, succeeding growth and clustering within new activities leading to the transformation of the economy’s structure. In a capitalist economy, this process occurs spontaneously. Nevertheless, such sequences often fail due to market failures and coordination barriers. Therefore, the public intervention aims to minimise bottlenecks, foster interaction within the cycle, define criteria and procedures for selecting promising fields of activity and minimise the risk of inefficient allocation of public and private resources.

The expiry of the long-term budget period triggered the first ex-post evaluations of the smart specialisation strategy. They concern regions around the Baltic Sea with partly similar conditions to those of the Kaliningrad region and, more importantly, with similar global challenges of sustainability transitions.

The smart specialisation strategy experiences are transferable to non-EU regions. However, there are preconditions for a successful transfer. The essence of entrepreneurial discovery processes requires conditions for creativity – talent, technology and tolerance (according to the creator of the creative class concept R. Florida). The armed aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine will successively limit access to these key resources due to Russia’s increased international isolation and internal changes suppressing civil liberties and, indirectly, creativity. Without it, institutions such as industrial parks, special economic zones, cluster initiatives or universities abundantly represented in the region will only be mock-ups of smart specialisations. That is the key lesson for the implementation of these strategies.

It is worth sharing other experiences of supporting smart specialisations, hoping for peacemaking and the true democratisation of the Russian society. Firstly, entrepreneurial discovery processes in numerous regions have led to the identification of specialisations with the potential to make socio-economic praxis more sustainable. For example, the Energy thematic platform gathered 28 regions from the EU Baltic Sea Region member states, among other territories. These regions most often specialise in sustainable buildings, smart grids, marine renewable energy and bioenergy. The Kaliningrad Region has the material resources to build competitive advantages in developing most of these projects.

Secondly, the Pomorskie Region, neighbouring the Kaliningrad Region and having some similarities in economic structure, also uses smart specialisation strategies for green transformation. The most promising are two specialisations: offshore and port-logistics technologies (PSS1) and eco-efficient technologies in energetics and construction (PSS3). A recent ex-post evaluation showed a significantly higher percentage of entities in both specialisations declaring the implementation of green technologies (PSS1: 39.4%, PSS3: 41.5%, non-PSS: 31.9%). The development of cluster initiatives was observed at the intersection of both specialisations. A good example of this is the development of the Competence Centre for Marine Renewable Energy. Other joint initiatives include smart specialisation entities developing interactive technologies in an information environment (PSS2), as evidenced by establishing the Autonomous Vehicles/Vessels Working Group. This development path required a critical mass of talents and competencies resulting from integrating efficient regional IT businesses into international co-opetition networks. For the Kaliningrad region, this is a doubly difficult barrier to overcome. Both are due to the limited local advantages of the agglomeration and the mentioned international and internal conditions.

To conclude, smart specialisation strategies become a tool to make the European Green Deal a reality. The bottom-up logic of entrepreneurial discovery rooted in the regions is meant to help achieve sustainable development goals. Given the history of Baltic cooperation to date, the Kaliningrad Region could be a pioneer of such a development model among Russian regions.

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