Clusters and smart cities as innovative partnerships for economic growth and new jobs in Romania

Abstract

Clusters play an important role in driving competitiveness, innovation and jobs creation in the EU. All clusters are unique, differing in scope, number of SMEs, composition, size, trajectories of development and adjustment to external circumstances. The cluster policy in Romania was launched in 2009 as component of the industrial policy. Clusters have emerged naturally and “bottom?up” from the regional level being mainly industry driven ones. Today, in Romania there are 92 regional clusters and poles of competitiveness out of which 70 were benchmarked by CLUSTERO? Romanian Clusters Association founded in July 2011. Romania has 10 clusters with silver label and 32 clusters with bronze label based on a benchmarking exercise lead by the European Secretariat for Cluster Analysis. Cooperation, innovation and internationalization are the main challenges for the Romanian clusters. Clustering and smart cities are team activities and need a common approach in the regional innovation system. Clusters and smart cities are well aligned with the modern approach of “Open innovation” which depends on the strong interaction between RDI entities, the dynamic entrepreneurship, public administration and the civil society. The paper is focused on clusters as innovative partnerships for the smart cities of the Romanian regions.