Abstract:

Regional development is the industrialization of the underdeveloped regions and thus creating a fair distribution of wealth inside the country, in order to eliminate the inequality resulting from the concentration of the industrialization in particular areas. The regional development policies, applied to achieve this main objective, vary according to the degree of inequality between regions. Foreign trade and especially the export sector are affecting many dynamics of the economy, and also act as important policy tools for achieving regional development. Literature review show that the developed regions are getting a greater share of the export, and therefore the export appears to be an important sector contributing to regional development. In this study, the relationship between regional development and export, and the factors that affect the export sector are examined in the case of the South-eastern Anatolia Region. A survey on 254 companies was conducted in order to find out the performance, potential and problems of the exporting companies in South-eastern Anatolia Region. Vast majority of the survey was conducted face to face, but a portion of it was done through the e-mails on Internet platform. The analysis of the data obtained from the survey is interpreted by using “SPSS 15.0 for Windows” statistical software using frequencies and averages.

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