Focus: The main objectives of the roundtable were to establish partnerships between the various stakeholders in regional economic development; initiate discussions on the drafting of regional development policies; and establish contacts and communication between economic development stakeholders of the rural and coastal regions of the Atlantic provinces.

ACOA Partner: Conseil économique du Nouveau-Brunswick (CENB).

Location: Bathurst, New Brunswick

Dates: October 7 and 8, 1997

Co-Chairs: Mrs. Anne Bertrand of the CENB, and Martin Abrams of ACOA.

Comments:

Two economists, Mr. Maurice Beaudin, assistant director of the Canadian Institute for Research on Regional Development at the Université de Moncton, and Mr. Pierre-Marcel Desjardins, holder of the Chair of Cooperative Studies at the same university, gave short presentations that provided discussion points on issues such as the importance of an enabling environment for local development, of exporting for SMEs and regional development, of means of transportation, of marine transport, of partnerships, and of centres of excellence, to name only a few.

Regional economic development specialists from all Atlantic provinces constituted a very knowledgeable and representative forum on economic development in rural and coastal regions.

Issues Summary:

• The importance of an enabling and vigorous environment to stimulate economic development in the regions through the establishment of partnerships and alliances between small and medium-sized enterprises.

• The key ingredients for an enabling environment are: general community leadership; entrepreneurship; available risk capital; adequate regulations and logistical support (government's role); and institutional support, particularly for research and development and for training. The most frequent problem is the lack of coordination of all these elements.

• The government must not ignore rural or resource regions in its economic development strategy. Rather, the government should rethink its economic development strategy so as to take more account of the regions. The government-region partnership is essential to the emergence of healthy and vigorous regions.

• Basic elements of the success of exporting SMEs include: the importance of information, given the new concepts of time and distance; the importance of networks; innovation; opening on the world.

• It is important to attract investments and even more important to keep these investments in our regions.

• The Atlantic Region's potential is enormous and it was making progress in regard to partnerships. The concept is well rooted in the private sector.

• ACOA should continue to support studies in sectors of the future such as information technology, biotechnology, etc.

• The pooling of experiences and opinions in regional development matters can only be beneficial to Atlantic Canada's economic development.

The views expressed reflect the comments and opinions of Roundtable participants and do not necessarily reflect those of ACOA or the Government of Canada.