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The Santa Fe Plan: The Cluster Approach to Economic Gardening

In the New Economy, the challenge is for a community to become more efficient, more intelligent, more ecological – more competitive. The objective of cluster cultivation is to help create a competitive advantage out of the existing local business environment by creating synergies and by nurturing the region’s key industry clusters. This strategy ensures that the community of Santa Fe builds on its strengths and has the appropriate workforce skills and infrastructure to move forward into changing economic times.

Competitiveness is derived from access to highly specialized economic inputs, often referred to as "economic foundations", including institutions that provide adaptable skills, accessible technology, adequate financing, available infrastructure, advanced communications, acceptable regulatory and business climate, and achievable quality of life. Success requires an enormous amount of cooperation between many regional institutions and organizations that create a vital cycle in which clusters and foundations are mutually supportive.

Full Story: http://www.sfedi.org/

The Ultimate Gardening Analogy 2005 http://www.sfedi.org/documents/UltimateGardeningAnalogy2005.pdf

The Santa Fe Plan Executive Summary 2005 http://www.sfedi.org/documents/TheSantaFePlan2005.pdf

(Many thanks to Chris Gibbons for passing this along. For more about Economic Gardening and a valuable listserve on the subject:

Littleton, CO now avoids financial incentives altogether. Can you spell Economic Gardening? http://www.matr.net/article-14303.html

Why Rural Communities Can’t Succeed Economically……and Why Some Will Anyway http://www.matr.net/article-11521.html

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