The role of Australian local government in economic development: Building international engagement capacity

IF 2.1 4区管理学 Q2 PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION

Australian Journal of Public Administration Pub Date : 2022-11-06 DOI:10.1111/1467-8500.12562

Matthew Walker, Shea X. Fan, Xueli Huang, Timothy Bartram

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

Sister city relationships (SCRs) are a platform through which local governments (LGs) engage internationally. Increasingly, there is an expectation that such international engagement delivers economic opportunities and returns. Many LGs are therefore pursuing local economic development (LED) through their SCRs. Drawing on a national survey of Australian LGs (stage 1) and interviews with key council staff and stakeholders in five LG areas maintaining Australia–China SCRs (stage 2), this paper contributes to growing literature on LED by examining how LGs have developed their own capacities and supported local small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to engage internationally. Our findings reveal insights into how Australian LGs have achieved international engagement through two strategies that leverage their SCRs, namely building government's capabilities and developing SMEs’ capabilities. This paper contributes new insights into the evolving role of LGs in LED, including both current experimentation, challenges, and future opportunities.

Points for practitioners

A growing number of Australian local governments pursue LED through their Chinese sister city relationships.
Supporting the internationalisation of SMEs is an emerging component of local government pursuit of LED.
International engagement of local governments has necessitated enhanced capacities in human, external, and financial resources.
Findings highlight the unique and often overlooked role of local-to-local diplomatic and economic relations.

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澳大利亚地方政府在经济发展中的作用:建立国际参与能力

友好城市关系（SCR）是地方政府（LGs）参与国际事务的一个平台。人们越来越期望这种国际交往能够带来经济机遇和回报。因此，许多地方政府正在通过其友好城市关系谋求地方经济发展 (LED)。本文通过对澳大利亚地方政府的全国性调查（第一阶段），以及对五个保持中澳SCR的地方政府地区的主要议会工作人员和利益相关者的访谈（第二阶段），探讨了地方政府如何发展自身能力并支持当地中小型企业（SMEs）参与国际竞争，从而为越来越多的有关LED的文献做出了贡献。我们的研究结果揭示了澳大利亚地方政府如何通过两种战略（即建设政府能力和发展中小型企业能力）实现国际参与。本文对地方政府在发光二极管中不断演变的角色，包括当前的试验、挑战和未来的机遇，提出了新的见解。为实践者提供的要点越来越多的澳大利亚地方政府通过与中国的友好城市关系来发展LED。支持中小型企业的国际化，是地方政府发展LED的一个新兴组成部分。地方政府的国际参与需要加强人力、外部和财政资源方面的能力。研究结果强调了地方与地方之间外交和经济关系的独特作用，而这种作用往往被忽视。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Australian Journal of Public Administration PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION-

CiteScore

4.40

自引率

9.10%

发文量

期刊介绍： Aimed at a diverse readership, the Australian Journal of Public Administration is committed to the study and practice of public administration, public management and policy making. It encourages research, reflection and commentary amongst those interested in a range of public sector settings - federal, state, local and inter-governmental. The journal focuses on Australian concerns, but welcomes manuscripts relating to international developments of relevance to Australian experience.