The Times of India -- AHMEDABAD: The city's first Cultural Heritage Cluster - aimed at incubating new ventures and innovative strategies that use culture for economic development - was launched on Sunday at Law Garden.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Export-Import Bank of the United States (Ex-Im Bank) has joined forces with the Virginia Small Business Development Center/George Mason University to assist local businesses to boost their export sales and add quality American jobs as part of Ex-Im Bank's City/State Program. 

EVERETT, WA -- The National Association of Industrial and Office Properties (NAIOP) recognized leadership in commercial real estate development at its November Night of the Stars event in Bellevue. Among the night’s winners were Mayor Ray Stephanson and Lanie McMullin, Everett’s economic development director, who were jointly honored as NAIOP’s Public Officials of the Year for Washington state.

Caribbean Journal -- It may be time to create economic “clusters” to spur growth in Jamaica, according to Densil Williams, Professor of International Business and Executive Director of the Mona School of Business Management at the University of the West Indies. Williams, who was addressing the Western Jamaica Economic Forum this week, said creating such clusters would bring “immense benefits to the business sector and ultimately the country.”

The TCI Network is committed to fostering knowledge sharing among practitioners. Presentations and other material of TCI conferences are a great tool for this purpose as they contain advanced theory and practice on competitiveness upgrading efforts, cluster development and innovation support globally and are widely used among practitioners in the network to advance in their daily activity. That is why TCI publishes all available conference material on their social medial channels.
 

Luke Runyon, High Plains Public Radio -- More cities want to take eating local food from just a hip trend to an economic generator. But as with many grassroots movements, there can be some growing pains along the way. That has some looking to the tech sector for lessons.

Following a presentation at the TCI annual conference in Monterrey, Mexico, Dr John Hobbs (School of Business, Cork Institute of Technology) was invited to give two presentations different research centers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The presentations were hosted by the Regional Entrepreneurship Acceleration Program (REAP), which is part of the Martin Trust Center for Entrepreneurship and the Industrial Performance Center (IPC) to share V‐LINC results and its potential for mapping Innovation-Driven Entrepreneurship Ecosystems and Global Value Chains (GVCs).

Important Deadlines 
Required Letter of Intent (LOI), December 3, 2014, due 5:00 pm local time.
Full Proposal Submission January 28, 2015, due 5:00 pm local time.
 

Accelerating Industry-Led Regional Partnerships for Talent Development Federal Funding Opportunity Webinar
Wed, Dec 3, 2014 4:30 PM - 5:30 PM EST

EDA Assistant Secretary Jay Williams will provide an introduction of the Accelerating Industry-Led Regional Partnerships for Talent Development Federal Funding Opportunity. He will be joined by Kate McAdams, Senior Advisor to Department of Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker and Bryan Borlik, Director of the EDA Performance and National Programs division. 

José Herrera, Times of Malta -- ‘The waves that shape us make us stronger’ was the tag line phrase used for the launch of the integrated maritime policy consultation process. It was a fitting phrase that coined the objective of a policy that would integrate the various maritime business opportunities with our social and environmental responsibilities leading to a step change, a change that will lead Malta to become a centre of maritime excellence. An ambitious order indeed, for it brings a number of challenges that must be overcome.