Potential clusters in Banat and their role in regional economic development

Abstract

The interest in the study of clusters and their role in the economic development of certain regions has constantly grown in the past years. This interest has also been emphasized by the emergence of successful clusters in many regions; these are clusters that have visibly and they have determined the increase in competitiveness of those particular regions. Clusters are geographic gatherings of firms and institutions, connected to each other and specialized in certain fields of activity. In Romania, due to the low cooperation level among enterprises we cannot say that proper clusters exists, but just some "spatial gatherings" of firms activating in certain domains, connected by the need of using certain natural resources and the existence of a specialized workforce in that particular domain. Natural "clusters" can be identified by means of quantitative analyses, these indicating the possibility to identify certain spatial assemblies of firms in a certain economic sector. Starting from these quantitative analyses, for Banat region have been identified some important spatial gatherings of firms activating in certain domains which could represent potential clusters in this area. As clusters function on the principle of cooperation among enterprises, a strong point of the region is the presence of foreign investors which promoted the model of enterprise cooperation through sub-contracting local enterprises. Among these, we mention the Italian investors which brought to Banat, especially to Timiş County the Italian cluster model. Are there in Banat premises for the emergence of clusters? Which are the fields of activity in which these clusters can emerge? What role will these clusters play in the economic development of the region? These are just some of the questions that we aim answering to through this study.