What is Development Agency? What are its responsibilities?
What is a Development Agency?
Development Agencies are legal entities coordinated by the Ministry of Industry and Technology. They aim to reduce interregional and intra-regional development differences and create a regional development momentum. Development Agencies are not investment enterprises. Their main duty is to discover regional potential and develop cooperation between the public sector, private sector and civil society. In Turkey, there are 26 different Development Agencies that have been established based on NUTS 2 regions.
What is a NUTS 2 Region?
The Nomenclature of Units for Territorial Statistics (NUTS) is a statistical subdivision standard by Eurostat. According to NUTS classification, there are 12 NUTS 1 and 26 NUTS 2 regions in Turkey. These regions are not administrative but statistical units. Development Agencies have been set up based on NUTS 2 regions and works according to "Law on The Establishment and Duties of Development Agencies" (No. 5449) and related regulations.
Why have Development Agencies been established?
Development Agencies have been established to develop the cooperation between the public sector, private sector and civil society, to provide meaningful and effective use of regional resources, to accelerate regional development, to provide sustainability and to reduce inter-regional and intra-regional development differences.