Competitive Regional Clusters : National Policy Approaches In today’s globalising world the regional specialisations built up over decades are transforming rapidly. Many regions that were historically production centres in a given sector are losing out to lower cost locations and reorienting to higher value added niches. National programmes to promote cluster based approaches linking firms people and knowledge at a regional level are being used to meet the challenge. This report analyses the objectives targeting instruments and inter governmental role sharing used by 26 programmes in 14 OECD countries. It will be of interest to policy makers researchers firms and others active in promoting innovation and competitiveness.