National Policy of Support of Clusters in Brazil – the Case of the Region of Integrated Development of Federal District and Surrounding Areas

Pecqueur, in his work, states that new territorial strategies are emerging in the global level to address the changes in the age of globalization. He identifies in his analysis of the globalization process the manifestation of two paradoxical trends. On the one hand, the displacement of enterprises looking for spaces, where production costs would be favorable, leading to a homogenizing trend with a tendency to similar characteristics. The production factors would be the same everywhere, varying only its combination. In this sense it would occur a spatial differentiation, instead of a geographic differentiation. In the other hand, there is another trend, where the complexity of the globalization process would produce the overlapping of local and global levels revealing a unit that seems contradictory, suggesting the existence of a planetary uprooting and rooting at the site, indicating the emergence of a dialectical model of local/global. In addition, the success of European industrial districts attracted the attention of developing countries, which launched policies to encourage clusters to promote local and regional development and consequently reduce inequalities. However, the cluster concept remains relatively vague, applying to widely varying spatial scales, so it is up to developing countries to verify the role of public policy in the support of cluster for social inclusion. In Brazil, the debate on clusters was intensified recently. Nevertheless, only in 2004 was launched the National Policy in Support of cluster, regarded as a key element in reducing regional inequalities. In the Region of Integrated Development of Federal District and Surrounding Areas in Brazil, which refers to an administrative division in the Federal District, the program of support of clusters is designed for the municipalities of the States of Goiás and Minas Gerais, based on investments supported by the ministries. In this context, the objective of this research is to analyze the evolution of the national policy of supporting clusters in Brazil with emphasis on the clusters located in the out skirts of Federal District, Brazil. Our hypothesis is that, as the federal government was working hard in the formulation of public policies to support clusters, local powers like, municipalities, states and regions have begun to make efforts in order to have enough conditions to be classified in the category of cluster and thus access the resources of public policy. The research was conducted through literature review. The main contribution of the study is to concur to the understanding of the public policy of supporting clusters in Brazil.