The word “corporate” is derived from the Latin word “Corporatus”. Corporate means relating to large companies, or a particular large company. It is often linked with Companies and similar bodies. Corporate investments are the investments made by companies. The word “Corporate” has a very broad scope and definition. It is undoubtedly the most important aspect of Capitalism. The changes that have occurred in the last 200 years are infinitely more than the changes that occurred in the previous 10,000 years. It has been possible just because of Capitalism. The problem occurs when the benefits of capitalism can not reach all the levels, that is small and medium scale businesses in particular. Capitalism in large-scale operations may look good from statistics but actually, it’s good only when it can benefit to the individual level. To support and enable small and medium-scale enterprises, a LOCAL ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT plan has been introduced.
Local Economic Development (LED)
Local economic development is a process by which public, business, and non-government sector partners work collectively to create better conditions for the generation of employment and economic growth. LED processes consist of various disciplines, utilities, and functions. The purpose of local economic development (LED) is to support the economic capacity of local areas to improve their economic future.
““Local economic development is a strategically planned, locally driven partnership approach to enabling
employment growth, poverty reduction and quality of life gain through improved local economic governance”.
There exist various ways by which Local:
communities respond to their LED needs, below are some of the following:
- Encouraging new entrepreneurship
- Supporting small and medium-sized businesses
- Attracting global, local, and national investments
- Investing in infrastructure
- Working together to obtain a better quality of life…
Properly planned LED is increasingly a useful tool to strengthen and reinforce the local economic potential of an area, refine the corporate investment climate, prosper the abilities and the quality of life, and increase the output, productivity, and competitiveness of local businesses and workers. To build a strong local economy, each area should carry out a SWOT analysis i.e.; Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. This is a collaborative process to realize the environment and structure of the local conditions.
The Led Strategic Planning Process
The strategy should form a component of a broader strategic development plan that includes social, political, and environmental parts. LED Strategies should provide focus on reinforcing the local economy and building local competencies. LED strategic planning is a flexible practice and one stage often goes on side by side with another according to local requirements and reviews. The main involved are :-
STEP 1:- EFFORT ORGANIZING
It is often the most critical and challenging issue determining the success of
LED efforts. It’s actually the start and most important point in any LED strategy achievement
The mix of public and private sectors is necessary for the LED business strategy to build a successful LED.
STEP 2:- ASSESSING THE LOCAL ECONOMY
To Identify a realistic and practical approach, the policy formulators should first assess the local market and economic conditions. The identification should start with-
- Re-identification of existing activities
- Making judicious use of available information
The local economic assessment is frequently used to-
- Identification of resources
- Collecting the information
- Analyzing the available information
- Using the information and making a provision to use it in future
A good assessment will make planning more accurate because an effective and successful
LED strategy planning will contain a review and analysis of the involvement of LED programs that are already happening in the region.
STEP 3:- STRATEGY FORMULATION
The objective of the strategy should be to achieve an integrated approach and to organize the efforts of the local economic zone.In devising strategy, practitioners in community government and principal stakeholder groups will need to describe their consensus on the preferred economic future and specify desired outcomes of the economic planning process and set out approaches to achieving realistic economic development goals. They are time bound and measurable.
STEP 4:- IMPLEMENTATION
Every LED strategy should have an implementation plan which is The LED Implementation Plan is a single document that contains all of the LED projects and programs within a strategy. The implementation plan establishes the finance and human resource requirements, and institutional and procedural implications of implementing the LED strategy.
The LED action plan requires detailed information including responsible parts, human resource and financial needs, order of tasks, sources of financial support, reasonable impacts, results, and systems for estimating steps forward for each project.
STEP 5:- REVIEW
As the LED strategy is not a process overnight, it should be reviewed once or more times before applying it on the ground level as it takes years to formulate it. Strategic control and review is the most important level in any LED strategy making. The review must include resources, inputs, outputs, results, and impacts in a way that it should allow local, regional, and national level policymakers to adjust the strategy with respect to changing local conditions.
Various Benefits of Led
- Sustaining business development
- Act as a link between national and international networks
- Alleviation of poverty
- Social welfare
- An organized and territorial structure
Conclusion
After decades of Central Planning, LED has turned out to become a significant agenda in national policy formulation. It is much more than a Jobs program- it focuses the community on a shared, long-term vision and creates policies to enhance business vitality and increase the standard of Living. It involves the allocation of resources that positively affect business activity, job creation, income stability, and budget planning in fiscal terms.
Local economic development includes public and private sector stakeholders that work with existing and potential employers to help them thrive. Nationalized agencies should be established in order to help small business to start up and succeed. However, all that is not enough, because the other social, economic, political, and legal forces including the universities, institutional organizations, professional training centers, national public institutions, and similar organizations should work together to achieve the main objectives of reducing poverty, economic growth, and unemployment.
