This report was produced by the OECD Centre for Entrepreneurship, SMEs, Regions and Cities (CFE), led by Lamia Kamal-Chaoui, Director, as part of the programme of work of the Regional Development Policy Committee (RDPC). The OECD is grateful to the Welsh Government for the financial support and substantive contributions that made this work possible.
The report was led and co-ordinated by Alexis Durand, under the supervision of Maria Varinia Michalun, Head of the Governance and Strategic Planning Unit in the Regional Development and Multi-level Governance Division of the CFE, led by Dorothée Allain-Dupré. The report was drafted by Alexis Durand, Maria Varinia Michalun, and Yingyin Wu, with inputs from Meg Hennessy (CFE). Davide Donati (Piedmont Region) provided valuable insights on strategy in Piedmont, Italy, and Hank Kune (Educore B.V.) designed and facilitated the vision-setting workshops and analysed the workshop outcomes. The report also benefits from the efforts of Helen Creighton, Luca Tacconi, Geoff Upton and Stephan Visser (CFE).
The OECD would like to thank the Welsh Government, and in particular the Regional Investment and Economic Strategy Team of the Economy, Treasury and Constitution (ETC) Group, for its co-operation and support throughout this project. Special thanks are also due to Peter Ryland, Alison Sandford, Sheilah Seymour, and Tom Smithson (Welsh Government). Thanks are gratefully extended to the various departments in the Welsh Government that participated in the focus groups and workshops. The authors would also like to thank Des Clifford in the Office of the First Minister for his support.
Sincere thanks are given to the Welsh Corporate Joint Committees (CJC) and their officers and co-ordinators that worked closely with the OECD to organise workshops with the CJCs: Kellie Beirne, Rhys Thomas, Lynda Bird, Mike Brough, Karen Jones, Louise McAndrew, Carwyn Jones-Evans, Nicola Williams, Alwen Williams, and Lynn Slaven. We would also like to thank the large number of stakeholders from the private and third sector, academia and other fields who shared their time and perspectives with the OECD team.
Pilar Philip and Jack Waters (both CFE) led the process of preparing the manuscript for publication, and Eleonore Morena edited and formatted the report.