Textile & clothing clusters – sustainable development drive of the Romanian economy

The tendency among developed countries is the development of national systems with complex international interactions, called by the specialists: “triangles of knowledge”. The triangle of knowledge, consisting of education, research and innovation, is realized through cooperation between education institutions, research organizations and the business environment. The importance of clusters to increase regional competitiveness comes from the fact that co-located businesses increase company productivity, lead to job creation, stimulate innovation, stimulate new business formation and support the survival and growth of small businesses. This paper presents elements for defining the Romanian clusters involved in textile & clothing sector and their activity analysis. According to the Ministry of Economy, in Romania there are 4 clusters in the textile & clothing sector, presented by development regions. For a detailed view of the Romanian textile & clothingclusters activity, the analysis of their economic indicators during the period 2012-2016 was carried out. The turnover achieved by the textile & clothing enterprises part of the four clusters was in 2016 of 1.19 billionRON, employing a staff of about 7078 employees. Clusters have the potential to create innovation-friendly ecosystems to strengthen SME clusters to better exploit their needs as a means of promoting economic growth.