In an attempt to accelerate the process of reforming the economy, the central institutions focus on supporting the use of technology to modernize the industry that would lead to the diversification of activities and the achievement of sustainable industrial development. The imperfections of the market and of the institutional system hampers companies\\\' access to information, knowledge, new technology and financing resulting in increased business risk and directly affecting the progress towards achieving development goals. Industrial parks may be considered as a solution to overcome these flaws in the attempt to accelerate the economic development by attracting innovative businesses that can generate jobs, higher incomes and therefore more resources to institutions. They can exploit the local potential in supporting knowledge-based business development and outline an environment where companies can interact with other supporting knowledge suppliers thus facilitating business and local development. The approach of the subject is theoretical starting from the need to support the economic activities by local social institutions fostering the access to information and technology and identifying some solutions that meet these needs - industrial parks. Even if industrial parks in Romania are still considered in draft form, some examples can be identified as functional and supporting the local development. Their functionality is given by the involvement of local authorities and the interest of the business environment in exploiting the economic potential of the region. The role of industrial parks in supporting the local development is measured in the number of new jobs created, the income received by local institutions by paying taxes and duties from firms benefiting from the infrastructure made available through their involvement in attracting investors; the more productive the industry and more efficient the production, the higher the company\\\'s results and therefore the benefits of local institutions.