THE ANALYSIS OF TRC2 REGION CLUSTER POTENTIAL

Abstract

In the development literature, national development policies has now left its place to regional development policies. Determination of development policies aims to attain competitiveness in national and international scope of the region where they‟re applied, according to the behaviours of the local actors and the regional development policies shaped in accordance with the specific characteristics of the region studied. In order to achieve the goal of increasing the competitiveness of the region, it is vital to determine the sectors that will be the locomotive of the region's development processes. Sectors with high clustering potential are more advantageous in determination of these sectors. Clustering; is to concentrate on the sectoral and geographical basis of organizations that produce and sell products that are related or subsidiary to one another. Sectoral clustering potential is determined by using various variables such as condensation coefficients, Herfindahl Index, localization coefficient, change ratio approach and input-output analysis, number of firms, employment rate, sales revenue, income, export and import values. One of the most popular methods that exist in literature on measuring clustering potential is the three-star analysis. The aim of this study is to determine the clustering potential of the TRC2 (Şanlıurfa-Diyarbakır) region and identify the sectors that could lead in regional development. On specifying these sectors the three star method was used, which was pioneered by the İzmir Development Agency in practice. Three star method is based on three different parameters which are magnitude, dominance and specialization. sectors of agriculture, aquaculture, tourism, service and industry which are regarded as the basis of the economy for region TRC2 (Şanlıurfa-Diyarbakır), will be given priority because of the predicted clustering potential. The expectation before the analyses is that the potential for clustering will be determined for these sectors. The hypothesis to be tested in the study is whether these sectors have a clustering potential or not.