New Brunswick is at an inflection point with opportunities to scale existing sectors while branching into new and related areas and establishing new trade partners, in Canada and overseas, all while implementing productivity-enhancing measures. To fulfil the province’s potential – and to contribute fully to Atlantic and Canadian competitiveness – actors need to come together across sectors, including business, civil society, higher education, and the public sector, to champion new and innovative ways of doing business and investing in people and places to ensure long-term resilience, productivity growth, and an overall boost in the region’s attractiveness for investment and talent.

Across the OECD regions are reconciling with the need for a more diversified approach to trade that promotes long-term economic resilience. Yet, finding new countries and regions with whom to build bridges is no short-term exercise – it requires an infrastructure and logistics plan to get goods and services to market and, leveraging regional ports, roads, rail and airports; it means working directly with small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), large companies, and actors in the investment attraction and export development space to support strategic diversification strategies. It also means working across all levels of government who can help facilitate a more navigable regulatory framework, while also freeing up land and warehousing and investing in transport solutions that facilitate trade competitiveness.

As regions across Canada and globally grapple with the urgent need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, the challenge lies in setting ambitious climate targets, and in implementing practical, sector-specific pathways to reach them. In New Brunswick, emissions have declined in recent years, yet electricity, oil and gas, and transportation remain major sources. At the same time, the clean energy sector presents a momentous economic opportunity for regions right across the OECD, New Brunswick chief among them. This session will offer insights on how regions are pursuing decarbonisation strategies, from greening energy sources to diversifying their economies and how these can be linked to sustainable economic development.

Regional competitiveness is increasingly dependent on the ability to harness place-based assets, ranging from workforce skills and industrial ecosystems to R&D. In the EU, Smart Specialisation Strategies (S3) have emerged as a powerful, multi-stakeholder approach to drive innovation and guide investment in high-potential sectors. Regions can adopt and adapt these lessons to unlock new economic opportunities. Meanwhile, across the OECD, stagnating productivity and stark regional disparities underscore the need for coordinated action. Boosting innovation—through increased R&D spending, knowledge spillovers from large firms, and stronger support for SMEs—is central to addressing this challenge. Success will require cross-sector collaboration to harness digitalization, support innovation ecosystems, and scale the global potential of both emerging and established businesses.

Talent attractiveness – including attracting national talent and retaining local talent – is a cornerstone of economic development, but not to be taken for granted. In an increasingly competitive market for human capital, innovative solutions are needed to attract and retain the talent needed, especially in critical sectors.

To explore the trends and opportunities in global FDI and how regions can attract investments that help solidify existing value chains while bridging into new and related industries, leveraging their place-based assets and using targeted instruments.

Opportunities to leverage regional identity, heritage, brands and cultural capital to attract visitors and cultural entrepreneurs.

Well-being is strongly predicated on place, which requires a deep understanding of local assets and disparities at a granular level, to design policies and to co-develop inclusive solutions that make for great places to live, work and play.

An array of bottlenecks exists to ensure that economic development strategies translate into concrete results. Issues like performance management, the adoption of AI in government, building strong multi-level partnerships and inter-governmental relations, addressing the fiscal and technical capacity of local government; and reducing the regulatory burden for investors, are all on the table.