A local development project model with municipality coordination and EU financial support programme: Pendik KISGEM Project

Since its first foundation, the European Union (EU) has adopted the policy of establishing a common market among its members to make use of the available financial resources in a coordinated manner, and balance the level of development among the regions. A number of grant aid mechanisms have been developed in line with the EU Regional Policy that targets an efficient coordinated utilization of the available financial resources for elimination of the regional imbalances in the European Union. The European Strategic plan 2020 published by the European Union in 2010 as to cover the subsequent decade has determined some strategies for a stronger Europe to sustain the worldwide economic crisis, and a number of goals to reach by 2020. When one studies the Europe 2020, known as the growth strategy of the European Union,the "employment" and "entrepreneurship" seem to be the prominent issues for the EU development. By the way, Turkey has paid a particular attention in the recent years to the plans and polices for employment, particularly the women's employment. The national development plans as well as the annual economic reports of the ministries and local authorities and the regional plans include goals and objectives to increase the rate of female participation in the labor force. It has begun to provide grant aids to mobilize such mechanisms as would encourage the female participation in the labor force. This thesis elaborates how Turkey makes use of the EU Financial Support Funds as from the era before the Customs Union and relation between the municipalities and EU Support Programme. In this context, the Pendik KİŞGEM Project, a related local development modeling, is analyzed, and a number of suggestions are made for the local development effects under the headlines "Urban Effect", "Project Sustainability","Economic Contributon", "Regional Development", and "Male-Female Equity in Labor Force" in an attempt to make the project more productive.