09:00 - Forests and the bioeconomy: creating opportunities for economic development
Forests contribute significantly to rural economies through the production of timber, non-timber products, tourism, and carbon sequestration. Balancing economic use with ecosystem protection is critical for long-term sustainability and resilience. A forest-based bioeconomy can drive rural and regional revitalisation by creating green jobs, supporting local enterprises, and retaining population in rural areas. It leverages the complete forest value chain, from sustainable management to processing, to deliver bioenergy, wood for construction, textiles, chemicals, packaging, and food ingredients. The rising demand for renewable, forest-based materials is opening up new markets, from long-lived wood construction to bioplastics, which replace fossil-based inputs and help advance climate goals. Successful development requires coherent policy frameworks connecting forestry, rural development, innovation, and industrial transformation. This session examined how OECD countries leverage the forest bioeconomy to foster sustainable growth.
10:30 - BREAK
10:45 - Mayors' Round Table – Bridging rural–urban divides to connect communities and resources
12:00 - Launch of OECD Rural Innovation Report
12:30 - LUNCH
13:30 - Harnessing AI for rural innovation: the role of rural–urban linkages
Harnessing AI and rural–urban connections to foster rural innovation is gaining growing attention. AI can enable innovation, research, and expertise from urban-based universities, research centres, and businesses to flow more effectively to rural actors. Policies should promote rural–urban partnerships, technology clusters, and networks, both formal and informal, that support the uptake of AI and collaborative projects in sectors such as agriculture, food, logistics, and rural health. Encouraging policies that link rural innovation policies with urban investment strategies, including smart specialisation, place-based incentives, and shared innovation infrastructure. At the same time, proactive measures are needed to ensure the transformative benefits of AI, productivity gains, improved public services, and labour-shortage relief extend to rural areas. Ensuring high-quality digital infrastructure remains fundamental, as weak connectivity limits deployment and widens divides. This session examined how AI can serve as a catalyst for rural innovation and inclusion, highlighting the role of rural–urban linkages in disseminating technology, skills, and data infrastructure.
13:30 - Connecting rural entrepreneurs, start-ups, and SMEs to urban investment and innovation networks
Rural entrepreneurs, start-ups, and SMEs are vital for job creation and diversification, but often face limited access to finance, skills, and markets. Connecting rural businesses to urban investment and innovation networks expands access to capital, knowledge, and markets, while stimulating collaboration across various sectors, including agri-tech, green energy, and creative industries. Integrating rural and urban resources, from skills and advanced services to local products, enables regions to leverage complementary strengths and foster diversified growth. University–industry partnerships, trade facilitation, and collaborative R&D projects also provide effective pathways for rural entrepreneurs to absorb innovation and build capacity. Building investment pipelines that reach rural entrepreneurs is crucial to balancing opportunities and reducing dependency on grants or subsidies. This session examined how stronger rural–urban linkages can help scale up innovative ideas, diversify rural economies, and enhance the rural SME ecosystem.
15:00 - Exploring new ways to measure rural–urban connections
Exploring new ways to measure rural–urban connections in OECD countries focuses on developing multidimensional indicators and refining typologies to capture the complexity of these relationships. Rural–urban connections extend beyond municipal or regional borders. Effective measurement must go beyond physical proximity to include flows of people, goods, services, capital, and knowledge. It should also incorporate measures of digital connectivity, labour mobility, investment networks, and environmental linkages. Functional approaches, based on commuting patterns, service flows, and supply chains, provide insights into the dynamics between different areas. Measuring how rural–urban linkages influence well-being outcomes, such as jobs, housing, access to services, and environmental quality, reveals the interdependencies and spillovers that drive regional development. This session explored nuanced, dynamic, and functional measurements, using emerging data sources and targeted typologies, to accurately understand and strengthen rural–urban connections.
16:30 - BREAK
16:45 - How the Blue Economy can drive rural business development across river basins, while benefiting from rural demand, investment and policy frameworks
This session examined how metropolitan governance can foster a sustainable blue economy through the integrated management of ocean, water and land as shared common goods. It highlights the need for municipalities to collaborate across boundaries, aligning policies and capacities to address interconnected environmental and economic challenges. The session explored how to strengthen rural-urban linkages and develop business models that connect land- and water-based economies, such as circular aquaculture, eco-tourism and sustainable agriculture. The session provided examples for improving coordination, innovation and accountability, promoting a governance approach that treats natural systems as interdependent assets essential to a resilient and inclusive blue economy.
18:15 - Closing Remarks
