The Role of Development Agency in an Innovative Based Regional Development Process
In this study, the role of development agencies, in the innovative based regional development process, in the context of Turkey as an example, will be examined. In today's information age economy, regional development can be achieved through canalizing regional sources to the technological development activities which will provide some competitive advantages. Innovation, which can be defined as the creation of new ideas and their implementation to economic activities, is the main source of long run economic growth performance. That the regions become prominent as the main fact of the information intensity capitalism has brought forward some changes and conversion in the regional policies as well. The aim of this study is to examine the role of the regional development agencies in the regional development policies in which the innovation process in Turkey is the determiner and to offer suggestions by relying on the EU experience.