[Type the company name] | German regions “Oldenburg (Kreisfreie Stadt)” and “Wesermarsch” | Examination paper | | [Type the author name] | 5/23/2012 |

Table of Contents

1. Introduction 3 2. The performance of the regions. 4 3. Location factors. 5 4. Theoretical explanation. 7 5. The future development. 8 6. Bibliography 9

1. Introduction

The paper consist comparison of information about the two regions in Germany - the Eurostat NUTS3 regions DE943 Oldenburg (Oldenburg), Kreisfreie Stadt and DE94G Wesermarsch.
Making an overview of the performances, local factors, theoretical explanation and the future development of both of the regions I’m comparing them between each other and with Germany as a whole. The purpose of this paper is to understand the regions ability to develop, the importance of their business structure and to explain the situation in each of the regions.

2. The performance of the regions.
Based on the enclosed data, compare the performance of the two regions with each other and with the whole country.

The following pages show the analysis and the performances, answering the questions that were given by using the Excel data that is provided.
The information in the Excel sheet about the population provides data considering the growth of the population for the whole country, as well as for the regions that this paper is about. By the enclosed data we can see that in Oldenburg there is increase in the population from 154 125 in 2000 to 162 173 in 2011, which could be provided by the migration in this northwest region of Germany. In Wesermarsch by years the population is going lower from 94 130 in 2000 to 90 772 in 2011, and the comparison between the two regions is that Oldenburg is improving more having higher number of population by every year than Wesermarsch. Also we can see from the data that in Germany the population is going lower by the years from 82 163 475 in 2000 to 81 751 602 in 2011, and using the fact that in Germany is in common that the people from the Eastern parts are migrating to the Western where the economic level is better developed, and the living factors are easier we can understand why the table shows that the region of Oldenburg is having increasing population. The main reasons about the growth of the population in the regions are containing immigration and also that the births are much more comparing with the deaths.
Of course world known fact is that Germany is one of the well develop countries, and that could be also seen in the sheet with GDP about the country as whole, where GDP is increasing through the years. As well as the GDP is going up in general in Germany, it is growing in the regions too.
Since 2002 there is a small drop in Agriculture and fishing for the whole country and Wesermarsch, only Oldenburg kept the same amount of numbers of people employed in this area. There was as well drop in the Industry and the Consumption for the whole country and the regions. But as it’s shown on the agenda the Services are increasing along with Wholesale and retail trade, financial intermediation and Public administration and community services. Looking at this employment pattern with almost no differences between the increasing or dropping numbers for the Germany and the regions, we could conclude that they are changing alongside and according to the last numbers for 2008 the employment in the country and the regions are growing. 3. Location factors.
Do the two regions have similar strengths and weaknesses as to the development of different business sectors? Compare to the country in general. Compare to the business structure of the regions.

As an answer to the following question about the business sectors in Oldenburg (Kreisfreie Stadt), I’m using the given data in Excel which shows the structure of employed in service sector to be the strongest one by the years from 2002 to 2008. The table proves that the level of employment in this sector is growing, concerning the location of the region and the tourists visiting in there. Therefore the reason for the high level could be as well that Oldenburg is the main town in the region and provides more working positions and opportunities. The other strong sector that this region has is Public administration and community services, which is relevant with the service sector and its improving as well. Presenting this information there is the answer about the strengths in the business sector of Oldenburg – increasing the level of employment the Service sector, this is the strength in this region. The weaknesses can be seen in the sectors of Agriculture, fishing and Construction where the level is staying in the same low position without development. Therefore these sectors are the weaknesses in the region. On the other hand looking at the other region – Wesermarsch, is having the same description in numbers. Taking in mind the data for Wesermarsch in business structure, the major sector like in Oldenburg are the services. This is the sector that is improving and increasing the most in the two regions and this sector is the main for both of them as strengths. Wessermarsch and Oldenburg are not only parallel in strengths but in weakness too. Again using the provided information from the table we can see that Agriculture, fishing and Construction are the weaknesses of them both again. In Germany as a whole the Service sector is taking more than 50% from the total NACE activities, so therefore is usual that the two regions are well develop in this heading. It is still rising from 27 398 in 2002 to 29 196 in 2008. Not like the Construction and Agriculture employment where the sectors have less people employed not only in the two regions but also in the whole Germany. Between 2002 and 2008 there is a drop in these sectors on national level. Observing the Excel sheet for Manufacturing we couldn’t make any comparison between the country and the regions but we can see the strongest areas of manufacturing for Weser-Ems. The major field is Manufacture of food products followed by Manufacture of machinery and equipment and Manufacture of motor vehicles, trailers and semi-trailer, what is usual considering that in the table the most developed manufacturing area for Germany is Manufacture of machinery and equipment. And the lowest of all for the region and for the whole country is Manufacture of tobacco products. The employment by the supreme level of education in Germany is the higher one in the European Union with 38 737, 8 in 1997, and the same goes for Upper secondary and post-secondary non-tertiary education and First and second stage of tertiary education. For Weser-Ems 63% of the population is educated in the Upper secondary and post-secondary education what shows that there is improvement in well educated working places in the region. This numbers prove why Oldenburg is one of the centres for science, administration and service. From the all countries in the European Union Germany has the highest labour cost in Electricity, gas, steam and air conditioning supply sector. In this sector of Germany the labour costs are 44, 99 EUR per hour. The country is taking 4th place in manufacturing sector, and the rest of the sectors are well develop as well, and they are taking average position comparing with the rest of the European countries. 4. Theoretical explanation.
Give a short description of a theoretical model that may help explain the situation in the regions. Give reasons to your answer. To explain the situation in my regions I decided to use Porter’s Diamond Model.
This model explains the cluster concentration of firms in both regions, which have to be linked in some way. Since the Services are the best improved sectors with specialized inputs, geographical concentrations encourage process of interaction with the competitive diamond by increasing the productivity of consistent firms or industries, to be more innovative. The competitiveness and productivity have to make the interaction between four sets of factors: * Factor (input) conditions;
This is referring to the main factors of production – land, capital, labor, and knowledge. We can see from the enclosed data that both regions have well developed factors of productions. Both regions are quite small but they do have well paid labor and they are well educated. They also have enough capital for investments. * Context for firm strategy and rivalry;
This is encouraging new firm formation and a competition between them to keep up with the innovations. This is important if my regions want to be competitive with the rest of the world. * Demand conditions;
This has tendency for successful clusters to generally serve global markets with leading edge local customers playing a key role in encouraging innovation among suppliers. * Related and supporting industries.
Close links between customers and supplier enable communication and interaction to occur, acting as key channels of learning and knowledge transfer, which is important if my regions wish to compete.
Applying to the used model and the explanation about the factors to my regions, I consider this Diamond model appropriate to use. 5. The future development.
Globalisation. Discuss how globalisation may impact such regions. The knowledge society. This is another aspect considered important to the regional development. Discuss how the knowledge society may impact such regions.

Oldenburg (Oldenburg), Kreisfreie Stadt and Wesermarsch are already a part of the world’s globalization, since Germany as a whole country represents a strong global market. The cooperation between all of the regions helps the two regions to develop constantly. Both regions have very well educated people, skilled labour and good capital for investments, which gives them the opportunity to compete on a global scale. Globalization may impact both regions by challenging them to be more competitive and more developed.
The input of the knowledge society impacts both regions to be more developed and to do it as fast as possible. Such society produces innovations and is making regions not only nationally but also globally competitive. The well educated people are then able to link globally available codified knowledge to specific local tacit knowledge, which is important because such local environments are the most innovative and economically successful.

6. Bibliography

Bontje, Marco and others. 2011. Urban Geography. Pathways toward European Creative-Knowledge City-Regions. 32, 1, pp. 80–104. DOI: 10.2747/0272-3638.32.1.80. Bellwether Publishing, Ltd.
Class materials by Susanne Bygvrå.
Mackinnon, D., & Cumbers, A. 2007. An Introduction to Economic Geography: Globalization, Uneven Development and Place. Essex: Perason Educated Limited.
Portrait of the Regions. 2004. Weser-Ems - Economy. Accessed: http://circa.europa.eu/i rc/dsis/regportraits/info/data/en/de94_eco.htm (23 May 2012).

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[ 1 ]. 23.05.2012 http://circa.europa.eu/irc/dsis/regportraits/info/data/en/de94_eco.htm
[ 2 ]. Bontje and others 2011, 80–104.