De l’intelligence économique à l’intelligence territoriale : L’information comme ressource stratégique pour le développement local au Sud comme au Nord

The object of this work is to re-examine the development issue on the basis of the concept of economic intelligence applied at the territorial level. The territorial intelligence, relatively new concept, is as yet used very little in development analysis in developing countries. However, the control of the information and knowledge is one of the crucial elements of competitiveness in the globalized world of nowadays, characterized by the economic war between States and large companies. This problematic implies to analyze the varied modes of economic organizations of territories (industrial districts, innovative milieus, clusters, grass-roots industrialization areas…) with the aim to establish a connections between territorial intelligence and what is called "attractivity" within development projects (which are necessarily a collective ones). However, it is illusive to think in terms of reproducing in the developing countries the models which have been designed by and for the industrialized countries. Before considering the development of territorial intelligence systems in less developed countries, a first essential stage will relate to the construction of dynamic local economic systems within the framework of territorialized development policies.