Analysis of value chains in the Western Balkan economies: enriching the potential for regional cooperation in priority areas

Identification of promising areas is among the main goals of economic and innovation policy development and a focal point of the Smart Specialisation approach. The economies of the Western Balkan region are applying Smart Specialisation to determine the economic domains in which they should direct further efforts towards exploiting their potential. The recent studies show many similarities in regard to key economic domains across the Western Balkans. In order to investigate the strengths of some of the key domains in the region and to better understand both national and regional competitiveness in that regard, analysis of competitive value chains was carried out in the following six areas: textile, automotive, agrifood, energy, tourism and ICT industries. The work employed a specific methodology and looked into various dimensions for determining the potential of the Western Balkan economies in relation to the selected value chains. This report aims at providing information on possibilities for regional collaboration for improving the value chains and yielding better results in the market, as well as on the strengths and challenges in terms of enhancing the positions of the economies in relation to the value chains analysed.