Economic policy at the sub-national or “regional” level has increasingly become relevant and challenging with intensified economic globalization and requires the development of economic policy concepts. This paper discusses how methods of project management can be applied to the process of creating guidelines for regional economic policy authorities. It starts with a discussion of specific features and challenges of project management in the public sector. It is concluded that projects in the public sector frequently are more difficult than those in the private sector.Then typical features of a project which is aimed at creating regional economic policy guidelines (CEPG-projects) are highlighted. Major characteristics of the most important project deliverable – a coherent medium term concept for regional economic policy makers – are discussed. The analysis of the typology of such projects suggests that CEPG-projects tend to start as pioneer projects and then turn into acceptance projects. From this analysis of project types and a brief analysis of three distinct levels of project management (functional, methodological, and social level) skill requirements of project managers and the public administration’s potential for drawingon external expertise are derived. Finally the relation between focusing the project’s scope on the one hand and achieving legitimation and acceptance by the stakeholders and the wider public on the other hand is discussed. A trade-off between these two project goals arises as both are functions of the number of stakeholders.

Walter Scherrer