Regional competitiveness and an instance of Turkey

Developments in information, communication and transportation technologies along with the liberalization in goods, services and capital flows has created an ever increasing competitive environment. Obtaining the power of comptetition and maintaining this power is stressed as the fundamental condition of existing in global markets. This process has also affacted the approach to urban/regional development policies. The traditional regional policies which are intended to decrease the disparities between underdeveloped regions and the other regions in the country have been replaced by the new policies which cover the whole regions and consider the needs and advantages of each region. With this change in the paradigm, to promote the competitiveness of cities/regions has become the main target.The aim of this study is to determine the competition level of cities and regions in Turkey. Within the framework of regional competitiveness, the competitiveness index is calculated by using the principal component analysis through 5 generally accepted fundamental indicators in the literature (economic structure, innovative capacity, infrastructure and accessibility, human capital and social capital) and 30 competitiveness determinative variables with the Statistical Classification of Territorial Unites based on Level 2 and Level 3. General competitiveness index and Level 2 and Level 3 regions based on sub-indexes designed for 5 main indicators are ranked by the calculated index values.