So what's the idea behind RDAs? What's their purpose?

Each Agency has five statutory objectives, and they are:

1. To further economic development and regeneration
2. To promote business efficiency, investment and competitiveness.
3. To promote employment
4. To enhance the development and application of skill relevant to employment
5. To contribute to sustainable development

You can see that each one of these objectives will have an impact on you, the employment, education and training opportunities in your region and your quality of life. Each RDA has a strategic vision for their region outlining their priorities and objectives designed to improve the region's economic performance. You can read your local RDA's vision on their web site.

What are the regions? How can you find out what's happening in yours?

The agencies are as follows and we're covering them in this order:

Month	Region and Agency Name	Website
November	South East of England Development Agency	www.seeda.co.uk
January	Northwest Development Agency	www.nwda.co.uk
March	London Development Agency	www.lda.gov.uk
April	East Midlands Development Agency	www.emda.org.uk
May	South West of England Development Agency	www.southwestrda.org.uk
June	Scottish Enterprise	www.scottish-enterprise.com
July	One North East	www.onenortheast.co.uk
August	Welsh Development Agency	www.wda.co.uk
September	Advantage West Midlands	www.advantagewm.co.uk/
October	Dept of Enterprise, Trade & Investment - Northern Ireland	www.investni.com
November	East of England Development Agency	www.eeda.org.uk/
December	Yorkshire Forward	www.yorkshire-forward.com/

We'll be focusing on each region in turn over the next 12 months.

Further Information:

www.dti.gov.uk/rda/
The web site for the Department of Trade and Industry is a mine of info on RDAs and business generally.