Megaron (Apr 2016)
Restructuring the Organised Industrial Zones as the Instruments for Development
Abstract
Turkey's organized industrial zones serve to balance regional development equally by directing private sector investments to specific regions or by providing monetary or physical incentives to augment existing investment incentives. They also cover the land requirements of developing industries, organize related industries so that they can manufacture together within the framework of a specific program, and consequently generate an external economy. Another aim of organized industrial zones is to aid national development by incentivizing underdeveloped regions and drawing industrial investments to these regions toward regional equality. Organized industrial zones are the outcomes of an organized, orderly and planned approach. They provide locational configuration and also serve as vehicles for development. These zones are efficient in directing industry to less developed regions, and, in regions with development potential, serve to activate this potential. Accordingly, they are efficient means of achieving orderly, planned urban development. Turkey's first organized industrial zone began operating in 1962 and to date, nearly 280 organized industrial zones have been established. Direction of industry to underdeveloped regions is a goal on one hand, while on the other, the decision has been made to establish several organized industry zones in developed regions as well. From the perspective of Turkey, it can be said that the difference between underdeveloped regions and developed regions has increased in favor of the developed regions. In order for the economic benefits they provide to also make a positive impact on city planning, decisions regarding the organized industrial zones must be made on the national and regional levels. Principles such as providing regional equality, preventing unequal development in the country and the internal provision of technical and social infrastructure brought about poor investments through the use of slogans such as 'An Organized Industrial Zone for Each Province.' Consequently, today there are many stagnant organized industrial zones. They are unable to provide the expected industrial development and have a low occupancy rate. In sum, organized industrial zones play an important role in organizing the relationship between urbanization and industrialization. They enable the inspection of the negative effects of industrial organizations on the environment and allow organizations to manufacture easily and cheaply in areas where they are all located together and benefit properly from infrastructural services. Thus, they give developing industries the chance to encounter ample opportunity. Yet the right decisions on site selection must be made so that the organized industry zones can provide these expected opportunities. This declaration aims to determine the current situation of organized industrial zones (e.g., the number of organized industrial zones per province, their occupancy rates and business segments) and evaluate their outcomes. Firstly, the appropriateness of the role that organized industrial zones, planned as vehicles for development, can play during the shift from realty-based growth to a production economy will be discussed. Then the discussion will be opened up to how this should occur (production type, site selection criteria, legal and institutional structuring, etc.).
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