Roundtable on territorial economic development

In this virtual roundtable, five experts – academics and development practitioners – discuss the importance of territorial economic development in times of globalization and financial crisis. The “local factor” can be considered a crucial differentiating element, that favours the emergence of alternative development strategies, and one of the most convincing approaches to addressing the current crisis. The five experts share their ideas on the role of territorial economic development in addressing poverty, inequality, the environmental and food crises and make recommendations to national governments to adopt policies supporting territorial development. Among these, they point out some specific tools such as Territorial Economic Development Agencies, decentralization and public-private governance that can be critical for the sustainable competitiveness of a country.