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Cross-border
economic
development
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Cross-cutting themes in cross-border economic development
Tourism
Tourism is one of the areas where cross-border territories find substantial
synergies, notwithstanding persisting patterns of competition. The
objective is above all to design joint tourism services and promotion
tools in regions with complementary tourist features.
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The Upper Rhine
for example, has a shared website,
www.upperrhinevalley.com,that advertises the Upper Rhine
to tour operators and the press, as well as a single “Michelin”
guidebook (just as the French-Swiss Jura Arc has a single
“Routard” guidebook).
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Cross-border marketing of tourism makes it possible to
promote cultural, architectural and heritage facilities
in highly
urbanised cross-border areas
, such as the Lille-Kortrijk-Tournai
Eurometropolis, the Greater Region and the Upper Rhine.
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In
rural and mountain regions
(French-Swiss, French-Italian
and French-Spanish borders) marketing of tourism is combined
with the promotion of natural resources, local products and the
development of cross-border areas.
Retail activities
Retail activities aimed at border populations are another form that the
presential economy takes in cross-border territories. Several factors may
explain the development on one side of the border of retail offers aimed
at this specific group of customers who cross the border for commuting
purposes or simply to make everyday purchases. For example:
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Price differentials
: cigarettes, alcohol and petrol for Luxembourg
and Andorra; general food products for Germany; meat, alcohol
and cosmetics, etc., for Swiss residents shopping in France.
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Differentiated product offers:
furniture in Belgium.
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Special town-planning provisions:
e.g. in Kehl where there is a
concentration of retail businesses with an extended catchment
area.
Supporting businesses
Cross-border public action to support businesses may focus mainly
on microenterprises and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs),
with larger companies conducting their own development strategies.
Microenterprises and SMEs that receive cross-border business
support may, through this experience, develop on a second
unexplored market that is local, but international.
This first experience
of international diversification should ultimately enable them to export
beyond the cross-border territory. SMEs interact more with the territory
in which they are established due to their size and structure. In France,
close to 75%
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of SMEs are independent or single-establishment
companies that do not depend on a head office and therefore have
autonomy in decision-making, which enables them to define a business
strategy focused on the territory.
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In general, mid-tier companies and large groups already have the
capacity to do business internationally.
The size of their international
or global market means that they do not consider the local cross-border
market as a special opportunity. The cross-border territory may however
be exploited for its potentialities.
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In the Øresund
: large Danish pharmaceutical groups use Swedish
logistics companies.
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In the French-Swiss Jura Arc
: watch-making companies are
located near the border in Switzerland in order to benefit from
the French workforce.
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http://www.insee.fr/fr/themes/document.asp?ref_id=ip1438104
Gilles Crague,
Entreprise, management et territoire,
Presses de l’Université Laval, collection
Sciences de l’administration, 2014.
Cross-border ski resort “Les Portes du Soleil”, at the French-Swiss border