Achieving balanced development in the country's geography is as important as the high development rate targeted for the overall economy.
Since the distribution of natural and social resources across space does not exhibit absolute equality, development between regions cannot go through an absolutely balanced process.
This imbalance, being on a large scale, triggers migration from underdeveloped regions to developed regions, leading to the loss of human and economic capital in the regions sending migrants, and causing various economic and social problems, as well as bottlenecks in infrastructure, in the regions receiving migrants, and has a limiting effect on growth for the country's overall economy.
Regional development is related to all economic and social sectors, inter-sectoral planning of public investments and interventions This necessitates the joint assessment of the interaction and its consideration in terms of regional development objectives. In addition, strengthening coordination mechanisms between central and local levels in the development and implementation of public policies is another critical element for success in regional development goals.
Regional Development Policies in Our Country from the Early Years of Our Republic to the Present Development Process
Since the 1980s,
Turkey's investment strategy has been aimed at developing social and economic infrastructure and increasing the share of the private sector in manufacturing;
while public investments have focused on energy, transportation-communication, agricultural infrastructure and rural infrastructure, Priority Development Regions have been excluded from this general investment policy in order to reduce regional development disparities. In this context, in addition to economic and social infrastructure investments,
priority has been given to manufacturing industry investments that can create employment in underdeveloped regions and projects that develop human resources.
By the 1990s, Zonguldak-Bartın-Karabük, Eastern Anatolia, Eastern Black Sea and
With the Yeşilırmak Basin projects, a transition to a programming process that is essentially in line with EU regional policies has begun. In addition, special importance has been given to increasing investments in the health and education sectors, in order to improve basic health conditions in all regions, and to increase the number of well-educated and equipped people, especially since the 1990s, within the rapidly growing population.
Regional Development in Turkey Today Policies and
Governance Framework
In 2018, the Presidential Government With the transition to the system, the task of reducing regional development disparities in our country was given to the Ministry of Industry and Technology within the scope of Presidential Decrees No. 1 and 4, and within this framework, the Ministry of Industry and Technology was also made responsible for the national coordination of development agencies. Currently, within the scope of the relevant Decree, the Ministry of Industry and Technology continues to fulfill the tasks of creating policies to eliminate regional development disparities, designing regional programs and projects, and coordinating development agencies.
Strengthening the spatial building blocks of national development policies, spatial development and The “National Regional Development Strategy” (RDDS) is being prepared with the aim of increasing the harmony among socio-economic development policies, increasing the effectiveness of regional development studies by giving them a holistic perspective, and creating a general policy framework for sub-scale (regional and provincial) plans and strategies. In light of the experience gained from the BGUS, which was prepared for the first time in Turkey for the period 2014-2023,
the BGUS for the period 2024-2028 was prepared by the Ministry of Industry and Technology, General Directorate of Development Agencies.
The coordination of the 2024-2028 regional plans prepared by the development agencies for 26 Level 2 Regions in line with the strategic framework determined in the BGUS was ensured by the Ministry of Industry and Technology. The 2024-2028 National Regional Development Strategy and the 26
Level 2 Regional Plans were approved and entered into force with the Presidential Decree No. 9253 dated 16.12.2024.
2024-2028
National Regional Development Strategy Its strategy vision has been defined as "A fully developed Turkey that has a say in global competition, with high levels of prosperity and resilient regions, using its local dynamics" and within the scope of the vision, for the period 2024-2028;
• The regions' global economic • Strengthening integration,
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• Increasing the competitiveness of regions,
• Ensuring economic and social convergence between regions,
• Ensuring economic and social recovery after disasters,
strategic
objectives has been developed.
2024-2028
Within the scope of BGUS, a spatial approach has been developed based on the fundamental assumption that
differentiated regional development strategies according to location should be developed in order to realize the vision and strategic objectives. In the BGUS spatial approach, regional development strategies; It has been addressed within a typology framework created by taking into account the four fundamental development dimensions and strategic objectives defined in the vision.
Within the scope of each strategic objective of BGUS, provinces have been classified into four dimensions and nine separate categories according to the spatial typology developed using more than thirty indicators that stand out in regional development, such as production structure, income level, export, employment and population, including the Urban and Rural Settlement Systems Research (YER-SİS) and the Socioeconomic Development Ranking Research (SEGE) in Turkey. Spatial objectives and strategies have been developed under these development dimensions.
In addition to the spatial objectives and strategies put forward to strengthen regional development in the 2024-2028 period, thematic objectives and strategies have also been determined due to the multi-sectoral structure of regional development. In this context, taking into account national and international developments, thematic objectives and strategies have been developed for the 2024-2028 period in the themes of urban development, rural development, social development, tourism, industry-logistics, green growth, entrepreneurship, R&D and innovation, and digitalization.
