NAME	Gösta Oscarsson
DATE OF BIRTH	September 15, 1937
NATIONALITY	Swedish
EDUCATION	1963, Master in Political Science, Lund University, Sweden. Major in Economics and Statistics
OTHER TRAINING	Numerous minor training courses
PROFESSIONAL SOCIETIES	Swedish Association of Planners
LANGUAGES/DEGREE OF PROFICIENCY	Swedish	mother tongue
	English	fluent
	German	good
	French	basic
COUNTRIES OF WORK	Sweden, Finland, France, South Africa, Zambia Short term consultancies in Zimbabwe, USA, Canada, Greece, Holland, Germany, UK, Iceland, Norway, Finland and Denmark.
KEY QUALIFICATIONS	Mr Oscarsson has throughout his career dealt with the very fundamental question of ”What can public and private actors at local and regional levels do to encourage economic development (and through that employment)?”. This has meant work on large national planning systems, but the emphasis has more and more turned into advice to local and regional authorities on how they might organise their development work to draw optimal benefit from available resources. In contrast to the traditional emphasis in regional development activities, Mr Oscarsson has often crossed the borderline between economic and physical development policies. He has also extensively dealt with the special problems of cities and metropolitan areas. Mr Oscarsson has often acted as an evaluator and advisor to actors in various countries in the field of regional development. Most work has been carried out in OECD countries, but also, to some extent, in southern Africa (Zimbabwe, South Africa and Zambia). Due to his long career, Mr Oscarsson has established an extensive personal contact network within local and regional authorities in Sweden. From the beginning of 2002 Mr. Oscarsson runs a small consultancy firm (GoA Oscarsson Konsult AB).
EMPLOYMENT RECORD
FROM	2000 - 2001
EMPLOYER	Ministry of Industry, Employment and Communications
POSITION	Advisor to the Ministry on Spatial Development before the Swedish chairing the European Union
DESCRIPTION OF DUTIES	See above!
FROM	1996 - 2000
EMPLOYER	National Board for Technical and Industrial Development (NUTEK), Stockholm, Sweden
POSITION HELD	Development Officer
DESCRIPTION OF DUTIES	NUTEK is the main Government organisation responsible for activities concerning technical, regional and small business development in Sweden, with in total some 450 employees. From a staff position, Mr Oscarsson run future oriented activities in the field of small business development and regional development. This is done through extensive contacts with researchers, nationally and internationally, by which future challenges to local and regional development are identified. On this basis the future work of NUTEK is discussed and pilot projects are initiated.
FROM	September 1997-September 1998
EMPLOYER	Hifab International
POSITION HELD	Urban Economist, Urban Planning and Environment Projects in Port Elizabeth and Kimberley, South Africa
DESCRIPTION OF DUTIES	Advising two City Administrations on Local Economic Development Activities and giving the economic and demographic background to the actual physical planning work.
FROM	1994-95
EMPLOYER	OECD, Territorial Development Service (TDS), Paris, France
POSITION HELD	Head of Rural Development Unit
DESCRIPTION OF DUTIES	The unit is responsible for OECD’s work on rural development and it services a Committee with participants from all OECD countries. One major avenue of work is the creation of a common way of classifying regions in OECD countries. Another deals with ”job creation”.
	In addition to this, Mr Oscarsson started the process by which four countries (Hungary, Slovakia, the Check Republic and Poland), by that time applying for membership, began structuring their respective territorial policy according to an OECD format.
FROM	1991-1997
EMPLOYER	The Norwegian Council for Research
POSITION HELD	A number of short term consultancies
DESCRIPTION OF DUTIES	On three occasions, Oscarsson participated in the evaluation of in all 12 Regional Research Institutes in Norway.
FROM	1991-1994
EMPLOYER	National Board for Industrial and Regional Development (SIND), Stockholm, Sweden
POSITION HELD	Head of Special Programme
DESCRIPTION OF DUTIES	SIND was at that time responsible for implementing national policies regarding regional and small business development. Mr Oscarsson ran a special programme on innovative approaches to regional development. Work concentrated on three main themes; i) international challenges, ii) infrastructure and regional development, and iii) ways by which local and regional actors organise their development activities. He was during this period co-author to a major study on the future physical structure of Sweden (Sweden 2009). It included, for example, scenarios for sustainable urban development and urban-rural linkages.
FROM	1991
EMPLOYER	The Finnish Ministry of the Interior/The Nordic Council of Ministers, Helsinki, Finland
POSITION HELD	Short term consultant/Team Leader
DESCRIPTION OF DUTIES	Led a team of international experts evaluating Finnish regional development policies
FROM	1989-1990
EMPLOYER	Royal Committee on Metropolitan Questions, Stockholm, Sweden
POSITION HELD	Secretary
DESCRIPTION OF DUTIES	The committee had to design proposals as to the future metropolitan policy of Sweden. Mr Oscarsson was Secretary to a group of social scientists mapping the experiences of various OECD countries in running development policies in metropolitan areas. This work resulted in three books attached to the final report of the Committee. Two major seminars were held, one in Paris and one in Stockholm.
FROM	1989-90
EMPLOYER	Swedeplan/SIDA, Zimbabwe
POSITION HELD	Short term Consultant
DESCRIPTION OF DUTIES	Oscarsson visited Zimbabwe on three occasions, in total for 10 weeks, evaluating Zimbabwe’s system for regional development, with the Ministry of Development and Physical Planning in Harare as the counterpart.
FROM	1985-89
EMPLOYER	Nordic Institute for Regional Research (NordREFO), Helsinki, Finland
POSITION HELD	Head
DESCRIPTION OF DUTIES	Under the Nordic Council of Ministers, the Institute had the task to start and implement research in various areas of importance to regional development. The main emphasis in the research was on different measures, used locally and regionally, to encourage economic development. On special commission from the Council, metropolitan questions in the four Scandinavian countries were studied.
FROM	1982-84
EMPLOYER	Department of Planning,, Zambia
POSITION HELD	Chief Regional Planner in Eastern Province
DESCRIPTION OF DUTIES	The position was part of the regular Provincial Government. A development strategy was formulated for the region. A large part of the work consisted in contacts with different donor organisations. Evaluated, on direct commission from SIDA, the SIDA-financed Integrated Rural Development projects in Zambia (IRDP).
FROM	1971-82
EMPLOYER	Ministries of Labour and Industry, Stockholm, Sweden
POSITION HELD	Head of Department
DESCRIPTION OF DUTIES	The Ministry is responsible for policies concerning regional development in Sweden. Dealt with a number of Bills to Parliament on regional economic development and the construction and running of regional planning and development systems, nation-wide. Initiated a large number of projects supporting local and regional actors in their development activities. During this period Mr Oscarsson chaired the committee within the OECD in charge of regional policy (WP6) and in this capacity managed evaluations of regional policies in six OECD countries (e.g. Greece, the Netherlands and Canada).
FROM	1970-71
EMPLOYER	Royal Committee on the Future System of Higher Education (U68) Sweden
POSITION HELD	Secretary
DESCRIPTION OF DUTIES	The committee looked into all aspects of higher education. Oscarsson worked for the sub-group dealing with the future geographical structure of Swedish higher education.
FROM	1969-70
EMPLOYER	National Centre for Building Research, Stockholm Sweden
POSITION HELD	Researcher
DESCRIPTION OF DUTIES	The National Centre (now dissolved) did research in various areas of relevance to building and physical planning. Research on municipal planning for leisure time activities and tourism, which meant extensive contacts with a number of municipalities.
FROM	1965-68
EMPLOYER	County Administration of Värmland, Karlstad, Sweden
POSITION HELD	Head of Section
DESCRIPTION OF DUTIES	Regional economic analysis and the running of various development projects concerning for instance small business development.
FROM	1963-64
EMPLOYER	Tel. Corp LM Ericsson, Stockholm Sweden
POSITION HELD	Statistician
DESCRIPTION OF DUTIES	Business cycle analysis and long range prognosis for telephone demands, world wide.