The OECD Local Economic and Employment Development (LEED) Program is a cooperative action programme, established in 1982 with the main objective of contributing to the creation of quality jobs through more effective implementation of innovative policies and practices and stronger and integrated strategies at the local level.
An integral part of the OECD LEED Program is the OECD Center of Trento for local development, established with the Memorandum of Understanding between the OECD and Italy in 2003, which carries out capacity building activities. The Memorandum was periodically renewed, up to the latest renewal signed in Rome on 18 December 2020 for a five-year term (2021-2025). Thanks to institutional funding from the Autonomous Province of Trento and the Trentino-Alto Adige Region, the Trento Center, further relaunched, celebrated its first twenty years of concrete activities in May 2023. Through its activities, the Trento Center intends to provide recommendations and develop the skills needed to design and implement policy interventions tailored to local needs and focused on key factors for economic growth and well-being in OECD member and non-member countries. In the last two years, two ad hoc loans from the MAECI, one intended for a “start up visa” project and the other for the enhancement of the artistic and cultural heritage of our cities in the post Covid-19 season (Heritage cities) have made it possible to further strengthen the excellent bilateral cooperation between the OECD and Italy.