ABSTRACT
An accustomed policy idea regarding nurturing national economic growth and development is seen via regional economic growth and development, especially in developing economies such as Turkey. For such purpose, priority regions and priority sectors are selected and planned to be supported. There are several ways chosen to identify the driver industries for regional growth. Such choice usually depends on employment and sales data. In this chapter we argue that such policy deepens the persistent regional disparities. We propose a new and comprehensive index to better capture the developing capabilities of regions incorporating the newly developed idea of “smart specialization”, using a multi-criteria decision making approach; namely the MULTIMOORA approach. For such a purpose, first we discuss the theoretical background of regional development, agglomeration economies, and clusters, then analyse the current situation in Turkey. Further, we offer a new selection criterion for priority regions while discussing the possible limitations to such selection on regional and national growth and development. In Turkey, priority regions have always been selected with respect to the natural structure and distribution of resources. The results of this study suggest a drastic change in the selection system.
