The role of the regional development agencies within the development process in Turkey and an application

Each regional economy is the part of the overall economies. So, theauthorities of a country, who desire to have a strong national economy andthe welfare of their soceity, should intensively work on creating policies toovercome the economic and cultural imbalance between the regions of theircountries. The organizations named Regional Development Agencies can beone of the most effective example of these policies, that are aiming to identifysectoral and overall development problems, chooses a range of opportunitiesfor their solution and promotes projects which can maximize the solution tothe problems.In the first capter, a general overview has been given regarding theregional development approach. Than the regional development agencieswere examined within the regional development policies, after defining theRegional Development concept and and Regional Development Agencies. Inthe second chapter, the regional development theories and the evolution ofregional development policies have been discussed. In the third chapter,general information has been given regarding the regional developmentpolicies applied in Turkey, and after regional development agenciesquestioned as a policy for regional development, the practicability of regionaldevelopment agencies in Turkey has been examined.To gather information regarding the objectives, qualifications, thestructures e.t.c of RDA?s, a questionnare has been prepared based on thecontents of the publication announced by EURADA, and sent to variousRDA?s in some European countries. Getting useful and detailed informationregarding the RDA examples in Europe was the main purpose of thisapplication study. It is planned to used this information to predict and discussthe availability and applicability of RDA concept in Turkey as a regionaldevelopment policy.Key words: 1) Regional Development Agency, 2) Regional Development,3) Regional Development, 4) Development Economics,5) Regional Economyii