An Industrial Cluster Study: As a Basis for the Aegean Region's Development Policy ‡

Abstract

The Aegean Region, which is the focus of this study, is the second most developed region of Turkey. Its share in the GDP has remained relatively stable around 17 percent during 1990-2000 periods according to data provided by State Planning Organization of Turkey. The region enjoys a number of advantages like; high quality human resources, rich experience in manufacturing industry going back to the 19th century, small and medium sized industries comprising the majority of enterprises, a promising potential for inter-firm network development particularly in industries like food, wearing apparels, leather, metal wares and automotive, relatively more foreign direct investment in various branches, an international port, universities, geographic location. However, despite these advantages, the region also has some disadvantages which can be summarized as follows: the lack of implementation of an effective regional development policy, limited number of regional institutions, inadequate institutional coordination between these institutions, poor vocational training, high level of brain drain, foreign trade of the traditional commodities of the region, inefficient R&D, low technology level, etc. In order to overcome these disadvantages, regional resources need to be reallocated according to the requirements of a global competitive environment in the framework of new regional policy. The study aims to identify manufacturing-based clusters across the Aegean Region and these clusters’ provincial locations, so that a base can be formed for potential regional policies. Department of Trade and Industry’s analysis of UK clusters is taken as the basis of methodology to be applied in this paper.

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