Abstract:

Regional Development Agencies aims to provide internal development and improve lagging regions by developing regional policies. This situation has increased the importance of competitiveness of regions and Turkey’s compliance with the Union’s regional policy has become necessary in European Union accession process. With the accession process to the European Union, Turkey abandoned regional policies, which have already implemented, and it began restructuring. In accordance with the criteria which set for the integration of all candidate countries, Turkey has shifted to policies that bring the regional competition foreground. For this purpose, firstly it adopted statistical regions separation system (NUTS) in 2002, in accordance with the EU adaptation requirements, and then it has agreed to establish the Regional Development Agencies in order to benefit from the financial funds of the European Union. In this study, first general information about Regional Development Agencies will be given and regulatory developments taking place in Turkey will be evaluated. In this context, the relation of legal arrangements with the EU regional policy and Turkey’s harmonization process will be discussed. In the study, an assessment on to what extent the regional development agencies have affected Regional development in Turkey and at what rate regional development agencies have reached their objectives of establishment will be made by using statistical data

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