A community needs to decide what programs and projects it will adopt to achieve its LED vision, goals and objectives. The options are many and varied and may be as simple as providing a directory of services for local businesses or as complex as attracting foreign direct investment. The strategies selected will be influenced by many issues including:

 

• Where do the urgent priorities lie?

• What resources can be made available to support the strategy?

• What options are relatively inexpensive to implement?

• What options offer immediate benefits?

• Does the community have the capacity to implement the option?

• What are risks? Can the risks be minimized?

 

Which Programs Do Not Work (But We Still Keep Using Them!)

 

Unfortunately there are countless examples of failed LED strategies and projects. These include:

• Expensive untargeted foreign direct investment marketing campaigns

• Supply-led training programs

• Excessive reliance on grant-led investments

• Over-generous financial inducements for inward investors (not only can this be an inefficient use of taxpayers money, it can breed considerable resentment amongst local businesses that may not be entitled to the same benefit).

• Business retention subsidies (where firms are paid to stay in the area despite the fact that financial viability of the plant is at risk)

• Reliance on "low-road" techniques, e.g., cheap labor and subsidized capital

• Government-conceived, -controlled, and -directed strategies