The Concept of Competitiveness through Regional Development Policy in Turkey and the Case of Istanbul Development Agency

In the process of accession to the european union, turkey has begun the process of creating the regional development agencies (rda) in 2006. currently, twenty-six rdas became operational. furthermore, the creation of these rdas must also be understood in the context of the country’s economic competitiveness policy. if economic regionalization will achieve these objectives, it must also meet the requirements of economic competitiveness and to those of governance. the question is to what extent turkey, with a strong tradition of centralized administration is capable and ready to move towards a genuine decentralization policy that would support and encourage local and regional development initiatives avoiding centralizing reflexes of the political-administrative system. in this perspective, this work aims to study the concept of competitiveness and its involvement in territorial development policies in turkey through the creation of regional development agencies. the issue will be addressed as part of a case study of istka, the istanbul development agency.