Regional Council of Jönköping County has recently decided to join the Innovation Circle Network. Marlene Ockander you are the expert advicer within education and competence and the main contact person, can you please tell us why you decided to join the IC Network ?
There is a long tradition of cooperation between Jönköping county and Alytus. The Regional Council of Jönköping County was constituted in 2005 so we are a quite new organisation and therefore also a new actor now taking part of this long tradition of exchange. We hope that the IC Network will help us to develop our international engagement even further.
Can you shortly describe the Regional Council of Jönkobing County, what are in your focus at the moment ?
The Regional Council of Jönköping County is the regional forum for collaboration, development and growth. This spring the Regional development strategy came to decision. You can find it in a short English version on our website ('A future of opportunities. Regional development programme up to 2020, Jönköping County'). The next step is to realise goals and visions that are formulated in the programme.
Do you have much international cooperation ?
We have international cooperation as one of our strategic areas because of its importance and because there is a great potential to develop . On an regional arena as ours I believe that all developmental questions need to have international relations as an integrated part. We have the County Council and thirteen municipalities as members. Of course each member has its own international network.
Can you mention any field where you search for partners ?
We have six strategic areas (Living environment and attractiveness, Communications, Trade and industry, Labour market and competence, International cooperation and Local plans and programmes). We are responsible for everything from analyses and planning through to decision-making and coordination of implementation and activities in connection with development and growth in these areas. I also think that it could be very interesting to exchange experiences about working at a regional level and the process of constructing and realizing a regional development programme.
