* 27 new schools, costing £1bn, to be built by 2011
* Hospital Medipark planned for the south side
* £90m Riverside Museum and £118m sports arena

An ambitious strategy to transform Glasgow - including a new Riverside Museum, a hospital "Medipark" and an International Financial Services District - will be announced this week.

This year's State of the City Economy Conference on Friday, will be marked by the launch of an action plan detailing eight operational themes which includes building a "metropolitan core", entrepreneurship, regeneration, international positioning and improved links with Edinburgh.

It follows a 10-year economic blueprint unveiled in 2006, aimed at creating a step change in Glasgow's economy to make it a world-class city by 2016.

Kevin Kane, director of strategy at Scottish Enterprise Glasgow, said the developments reflect a growing confidence in the city.

He said: "Glasgow has often looked and compared itself to the past. We don't have the manufacturing base we did, and a lot of the economic and social strategies of the past were about repairing the damage.

"I think Glasgow has come a huge way and this economic strategy is saying we need to get people involved and think more seriously about how Glasgow makes its way in the world. It needs to be more competitive, we need better-educated workers, better-educated school leavers because the future is a high-value and high-wage economy, that's what we need to move to. We want to be more ambitious for everyone in the city."

Scottish Enterprise and Glasgow City Council are the key agencies involved in the action plan, which is expected to cost at least £7 billion. Some projects have not yet been costed and more investment is needed to make sure some of the projects go ahead. The plans will be put out to consultation on Friday in the hope there will be committed funding for all projects by the start of the next financial year.

Kane added: "I think the success of developing a new economic base for the city, especially in the city centre over the past 15 years, has had a phenomenal effect and a growing confidence for the city and its citizens. We have ambition for the city, and a recognition that in a knowledge-based economy Glasgow has some real assets."

Kane added that Glasgow's universities haven't "fully recognised or developed their potential" and further commercialisation was needed.

He added: "We are starting to understand more about the economic assets we have in the NHS. Most of the debate in the NHS is about hospital closures but the reality is the expertise in the NHS in Glasgow, in the hospitals, in research, all of these things are huge assets that we will be able to make much more of in terms of translation of medicine, drug trials, drug development.

"We have the statisticians, we have the medics and the mathematicians which should allow companies to tap into that, and we are only recognising now that's something we can use to attract business to and build businesses on."

A new South Glasgow Hospital Medipark will be built over the next five years with the first phase of the development costed at £4 million. A new BioMed West project will be launched too, costing between £20m and £50m.

The action plan describes it as a "platform for the enhancement of life sciences and healthcare research involving universities and the NHS. Outcomes include increased commercialisation and spin-outs in healthcare field."

A significant amount of money will be spent on building stronger links with Edinburgh to help boost what is described as the "twin engines of the Scottish economy".

Kane said that by having faster and more frequent train services between the two cities will help create "an economic space of international significance".

Councillor Steven Purcell, leader of Glasgow City Council, said: "In 10 years, our vision for Glasgow is a world-class city achieving its potential to deliver sustainable wealth and wellbeing for all its citizens.

"Enormous economic activity is happening across a number of areas and the remarkable thing is that much of this is happening simultaneously."

Purcell said the "unprecedented amount of development within the city" would lead to a £10m per annum investment to remediate derelict and vacant land, a £90m Riverside Museum to add to the tourism infrastructure and a new 12,500-seat events arena costing £118m to help Glasgow bid for major international events.

Some of the developments are already under way, such as the development of a "digital media quarter" at Pacific Quay where the new BBC and STV buildings are located, and these feed into an overall plan to build a new "metropolitan core" on the city's waterfront. It is hoped the £277m private investment in this area will create 13,000 new jobs and generate £197m Gross Value Added (GVA) to the Scottish economy.

Winning the Commonwealth Games bid has also led to a number of the projects securing funding and planning approval, including the regeneration of the east end and improved transport links such as the extension of the subway to Parkhead.

Purcell said these changes cannot be achieved without a "well-educated, well-trained and high-skilled workforce".

More than £1bn has been budgeted to build 27 new schools by 2011 and a further £10m has been set aside to establish a Scottish centre for Innovation, Design and Creativity at the Glasgow School of Art.

Employers won't be forgotten either with one of the action plan themes dedicated to encouraging entrepreneurship and improving the supply of small and medium-sized businesses.

Scotland's wealthiest man and most successful entrepreneur, Sir Tom Hunter, has been a vocal advocate of helping more people into business.

Ewan Hunter, spokesman for Sir Tom, and chief executive of the Hunter Foundation which supports educational and entrepreneurial projects in Scotland, said: "It's fantastic that the city recognises the need to produce more entrepreneurs, but it's not just about that. It's about enterprising citizens. So it's fundamental that we re-double our efforts in our determination to succeed in putting enterprise into primary and secondary schools in Glasgow.

"Fostering more entrepreneurs is a wonderful opportunity and one which the Hunter Centre for Entrepreneurship will certainly support, as will we in the Foundation."

Currently, Glasgow has around 5000 fewer businesses than expected for a city of its size, and business survival rates are behind the UK average.

A new programme to maximise the economic value of migrant workers is planned to increase the number of businesses starting up, and more support will be given to those businesses that want to grow.

Andrew Watson, spokesman for the Scottish Federation of Small Businesses, said: "For the past 20 years there has been a strong perception that Glasgow it a difficult place to start a business. With the Scottish government recently announcing small business rates bonuses and now this commitment from Glasgow, we would hope to see small business activity springing up around these planned new developments."

Consultation will be open on Friday. Visit www.glasgoweconomicfacts.com for more information