The role of economic sectoral structure as a policy mechanism towards more resilient peripheral regions: the case of South Africa

The role of economic sectoral structure in regional growth and development is widely acknowledged. However, there has been scarce reflection on its role as a policy instrument, particularly for peripheral regions. In reaction, this paper investigates the role of economic sectoral structure as a policy instrument towards more resilient peripheral regions. Through a multiple country policy analysis, the paper determines to what degree economic sectoral structure is reflected in regional development policies of 18 countries with predominantly rural characteristics and lagging regions. Moreover, the role of economic sectoral structure towards more resilient regions is quantified and measured for a specific peripheral region case in South Africa as developing country exhibiting poor economic resilience. The paper highlights related variety as a key ingredient for a region to reach a state of dynamic stability between adaptation and adaptability towards enhanced long-term resilience capacity of the peripheral region. The research concludes that policy focus should support the maintenance of the sectors and industries of comparative advantage on the regional scale, but strongly focus on sectoral comparative advantage within the national scale (if present) to establish a more robust region. This will establish and strengthen the identified peripheral growth centres as centres of national competitiveness and specialisation. Primary policy actions as emanated from the literature and the multiple country policy analysis will promote more efficient sectoral composition as key towards more resilient peripheral regions. It is acknowledged that these policy actions must be informed by a detailed regional economic analysis for different peripheral regions to determine inherent and latent economic potential and link with interdependent industries. This paper will highlight that regional policy should become more explicit by exploiting the role of economic and natural resources as growth engines for the peripheral regional economy in a more effective way through a multi-centred territorial structure.

     

Regional policy in Switzerland: an analysis of its effectiveness and an outline of a strategic reorientation

First, regional policy in Switzerland is examined theoretically. This is followed by a short review of those partial effects of this policy which, according to current empirical findings, can be regarded as proved. Finally, with the failings of present policy in mind, the basis for a strategically new concept is drawn up. Swiss regional policy is unlike that of other countries, in that it is not influenced by any one particular theory of regional economics. On the contrary, there is a combination of widely varying forms, especially a mixture of theoretical elements based on both neoclassicism and polarization. Viewed as a whole, this concept can be considered well-balanced, despite the criticisms brought forward here. A radical departure from the present concept appears neither necessary nor sensible, although the individual points of criticism show that to be really effective, present policy requires a few additions or shifts of emphasis. Thus regional policy should increasingly build on the region's existing potential, aiming for the broadest possible development and mobilization of local resources. This should enhance regional self-reliance, simultaneously, in economic, social-cultural, and political terms. In addition, appropriate measures should be taken to improve the innovative strength of peripheral regions. Finally, an essential aspect of strategic reorientation is increased attention to the problems of settlement structure in peripheral parts of the country. In this respect the promotion of small and medium-sized development centres deserves special attention.     

Social justice in coastal erosion management: The temporal and spatial dimensions

Coastal erosion management is primarily based on economic considerations (cost-benefit analysis). From the perspective of social justice (as a particular expression of the wider concept of human rights), however, several arguments can be advanced regarding public intervention in coastal defence management when private property is threatened by coastal erosion. In this paper we examine these arguments at both the short-term local scale and the long-term large spatial scale and consider the merits of inclusion of a social justice dimension in coastal erosion management. The coast provides a range of resources that benefit society as a whole. Coastal residents and property owners face a direct financial loss from coastal erosion but the general public also stands to incur losses other than purely financial if it there is public intervention for the benefit of these property owners. The arguments for public intervention are strongest at the local and short-term scales but they weaken (and even reverse) at geographically larger and longer time scales. At larger scales, the costs to society increase as intergenerational equity, non-coastal residents, climate and sea level change, and the environment are considered. Because of the intensity of interest involved at the local level, we argue that the necessary hard decisions must be made nationally if a sustainable policy is to be adopted. Social justice considerations provide a potential improvement on the traditional economic cost/benefit-based decision-making process of coastal erosion management but they only contribute to sustainability if viewed at the national level.     

The spatial organization of services in new land settlement: experiences and trends

Conclusion Despite its uniqueness, the vitality inherent in the rural structure of Israel is of particular interest to other developing regions with a predominant rural-agricultural population. Latin American countries, for example, are investing considerable resources in the development of new lands through construction of penetration roads and other infrastructure. Several countries have created regional development authorities; some have policies designed to attract private investments into virgin areas.¹³⁾ The general emphasis tends increasingly toward state-initiated and planned settlement, often in conjuction with agrarian reform programs — an approach dictated both by economic efficiency and welfare criteria.Past experience has shown that the rural population has to be organized in viable communities in order to become amenable to economic and cultural integration. Communities must likewise be spatially organized in an optimal way that will make it possible to provide them with amenities and so direct their production for the purpose of achieving economic status. At the same time, maximum flexibility must be preserved to fit varying developmental stages, since physical plans once carried into effect are extremely difficult to modify.In order to reduce the social and economic pull of existing urban centers it may be advisable to develop new settlement areas as self-sufficient enclaves, independent to some extent from the facilities existing in the region. The settlements would share the national infrastructure of communications and public services, but would gear their production to regional as well as extra-regional demand, bypassing the traditional local market place. Then, as the new communities consolidate as social and economic entities, the options for collaboration or competition with existing central places can be laid open on a more equitable basis.Admittedly such sheltered development may affect the role of the local intermediary and lessen the commercial activities of the urban sector, but it would also stimulate the development of an independent framework of handling, marketing, and an increasing degree of processing the settlements' produce. These complementary activities would help to retain part of the added value of the production and generate new sources of employment for successive village generations. The delay in the growth for the region's total output may well be worthwhile for achieving that social and economic transformation which in turn may lead to a more balance and sustained development of the entire region.¹⁴⁾     

Networking for Local Agenda 21 implementation: Learning from experiences with Udaltalde and Udalsarea in the Basque autonomous community

Local Agenda 21 (LA21) is widely regarded as a key tool for implementing sustainability policies since local authorities are closer to ordinary people and some local managers and politicians have the ability to adapt organisations to new managerial atmospheres and social demands. However, local governments tend to lack the right economic, human and knowledge resources. Consequently, in the search for local sustainable development, networking and collaborative approaches to LA21 can help local authorities save resources and share knowledge and best practices. Although both research and politicians have tended to focus on LA21, we believe Regional Agenda 21 (RA21) needs to be emphasised as a complementary tool. This paper examines successful innovative practices in the Basque Autonomous Community (BAC) over a 4-year period, with a view to shedding light on the theoretical literature and to aiding regional and local authorities. Although research on policy networks has produced useful results, we are still some way from a plausible, consensus-based theory of policy networks. Based on experience in the BAC, the present article offers an integrated approach to understanding the antecedents and consequences of a regional knowledge-driven network for LA21 promotion. Although LA21 implementation has been studied before, evidence about networking at regional level is scarce. Other regions in developing countries could use this approach to achieve successful policy networks.     

Industrial location in Japan since 1945

This paper outlines the main changes in industrial location in Japan since the end of World War II. After a brief introduction, the paper discusses the growth of industrial regions between 1955 and 1965, and gives particular attention to the establishment of heavy industrial complexes in coastal locations and to the growth of assembly-line industries in inland locations. Some reference is also made to the role of local government inducement policies. The paper then turns to an examination of trends since 1965, and considers the significance of external diseconomies, changes in local government policy, labour shortage, improvements in transport and communications, and regional development policy. The paper argues that these factors have been responsible for a limited dispersal of manufacturing away from the main industrial regions. In conclusion, the paper briefly considers the implications of current economic trends for industrial location.     

The role of environment and natural resources in territorial organization of the USSR economy

At present there is a tendency for the roles, in the economy, of the environment and natural resources to be interrelated. Economic factors have increasingly been affected by environmental impact in spatial economic organisation (ETO). The growth of production results in the constant increased consumption of natural resources. New sources (of inferior quality in the developed regions or in the regions with extreme conditions), formerly not exploited area now used. At the same time the following tendencies can be observed: increased concentration of production, more complicated branch structure, growth in number of manufacturing industries, decline in the share of mining in industrial output. This tendency is accompanied by the spatial disjunction of technologically interconnected industries (dealing with mining and processing of raw materials) and by the formation of new industrial integrations (not dealing directly with natural resources utilization). In this complicated situation the investigation of natural resources and of the environmental role in the spatial organisation of the economy is becoming of special relevance. In the author's opinion while investigating this problem the type of social system should be considered, as well as the level of development of productive forces and the combination of regional nature and economic conditions. Three aspects of investigation—branch, spatial and functional—are proposed. The analysis of natural resources and environmental impact the spatial organisation of the economy in each of mentioned aspects should be performed on different scales—local, regional, national and international levels. The approach to problem investigation is based on the analysis of data about the USSR. and exemplified. The investigators recommend the application of Soviet experience in this field by the geographers of other countries.     

第二深度空间金属矿产探查与东北战略后备基地的建立和可持续发展

我国正处于快速工业化和经济腾飞的前夜,对金属矿产资源的需求必将日益增大,而第一深度空间（0~500 m）找矿、勘探和开发的资源量远远不足,且十分紧缺。为此,在多元利用世界资源的同时,必须立足本土,迅速强化进行第二深度空间(500~2 000 m)高精度地球物理找矿、勘探与开发,并从速在我国东北地区建立起金属矿产资源安全、可靠、稳定供给的战略后备基地,以保证我国社会与经济的可持续发展。这是因为金属矿产资源的形成与聚集取决于深部物质与能量的交换和其深层物理-力学-化学作用过程与其动力学响应。 为此,本文将讨论以下6个问题： （1）当今世界上各国对金属矿产资源的需求势态。 （2）我国在快速工业化和腾飞前夜对金属矿产资源的需求与对外依存度。 （3）我国必需金属矿产资源的保障途径之一,世界资源的多元化利用。 （4）中国在共享世界资源的同时,必须立足于本土。 （5）我国东北多金属矿产资源的深入找矿、勘探、开发和利用与我国东北地域金属矿产资源战略后备基地的建设。 （6）必须迅速强化开展地壳内部第二深度空间金属矿产资源的地球物理找矿、勘探与开发。     

广西-东盟矿业经济互动中的问题与对策浅探

矿业经济在广西与东盟的经济互动中占有重要的地位。广西与东盟矿业企业的合作保持良好的态势,但同时广西与东盟矿业经济在互动中也存在资源开发技术、服务体系、融资及周边环境的挑战等问题,应尽快发展矿产资源跨国合作的投资机构,建立矿业科技服务平台及矿产资源交易平台,充分利用广西的区位优势进一步扩大与东盟国家之间的矿业合作,实现广西-东盟矿业经济跨越式发展。     

Planning and the rural regions of Nigeria

Conclusion Urban and rural development arek inextricably related, that regional planning can play important roles as catalyst for agriculture and rural development; and that a system of growth centres and/or agropolitan policy which can be important in achieving economic growth with social equity, will be far more influential. Again if the National Planning Authority, Regional Planning Agency and the policy of growth centre in the rural areas of the recommended regions is pursued, it will not only increase agricultural productivity or a path to agricultural transformation for deleterious effects of migration to corporate farming but also could, over time help to reduce the pressure on the urban areas by providing counter-magnets to migration and we envisage, will bring about a national regional planning budget which should be operated on yearly basis.     

Water demand and supply in large cities in Japan

After WW II, water demand in Japan for municipal and industrial use has increased drastically in those large cities and industrial regions with rapid urbanization and high economic growth. This was true especially in the decades of 1950 and 1960.Water shortage continues to be serious in some large cities in summer months. The author attempts to explain the reasons for this water shortage by explaining the relation between population growth and water demand in large cities. To meet these water shortages, there has been active development of water resources including construction of dams and saline barriers in large river basins and modernization of the water use system to increase its efficiency and re-use capacity for sewage treatment etc.At the same time, water resources development projects have been encountering various environmental problems as well as increased local protest in the 1970s. The author discusses the present dimensions of these problems and also presents several ideas regarding water resources planning for the future.     

菏泽市土地开发整理可持续发展研究

该文分析了菏泽市土地利用现状及存在的问题,认为现阶段菏泽市土地整理应以农用土地整理为主,重点放在农村地区,对土地开发整理规范化管理是当前土地整理发展的方向。因此,菏泽市加大土地开发整理力度,科学利用本地特色资源,监管得力,缓解了该市土地资源的紧张状况,有利于土地资源的规范化发展,确保了经济的可持续发展。     

Towards an urbanization strategy for Zimbabwe

Rapid urbanization through rural-urban migration (hitherto controlled by legislation) is developing in Zimbabwe with the advent of black majority rule. Although some advocate its encouragement to relieve pressures on Tribal Trust Lands, rapid urbanization will nevertheless pose severe planning problems. Although current public sector development proposals represent a conceptual advance, a comprehensive urbanization strategy has yet to emerge. This paper considers such a strategy, relating the country's varying regional development potential to a scheme of classification for proposed growth centres and rural service centres, based on their different characteristics and locations. It is concluded that an hierarchy of growth centres, evaluated by economic efficiency criteria, should be developed in the formerly white-controlled national economic core. In the peripheral, basically subsistent Tribal Trust Lands, a limited number of rural service centres should be developed, based on social/equity criteria. The choice and location of these various development centres, and their phasing should contribute to building up a dynamic national urban system that is nationally and regionally integrated, in contrast to past dualism, and will more effectively serve the needs of planned urbanization and of regional development.     

Groundwater management in France

Groundwater, like other extensive natural and renewable resources, easily accessible and, at the same time, vulnerable, has to be managed so as to reconcile the unique resource with its many users, and its long-term preservation with short-term utilization requirements. Under the natural, legal, and economic conditions prevailing in France, where groundwater constitutes a large part of water production and resources, where there are tens of thousands of economic developers and users of a few hundred natural groundwater management units, such management concerns these users as well as the public and collective authorities that control the users' activities for the common present and future good of all. Legislative, financial, and educational means are applied simultaneously to preserve and protect the quality and quantily of the groundwater and at times to encourage its use and stimulate its development.     

Pragmatic localism uncovered: The search for locally contingent solutions to national reform agendas

This paper analyses the complexity and attempted pragmatism of current practices surrounding the management of current local government policy reform in England. In particular, it focuses on the tensions and contradictions between a national policy dynamic which seeks to encourage locally contingent solutions to be developed for localised problems, and the centralising tendencies of the national state which result in ‘blueprints’ and ‘models’ being developed for local policy delivery and a requirement to meet centrally derived targets. These assumptions are explored through the experiences of local government attempts to introduce innovative and experimental praxis in line with the complex cultural and political changes of ‘modernisation’ agendas advanced by the UK government. This is being rolled out by an overarching project of ‘new localism’ - an attempt to devolve power and resources from the central state to front line local managers, sub-local structures and partnerships and to deliver ‘what works’. It is argued that new attempts at subsidiarity should be more flexible to local conditions rather than directed by national policy and that greater discretion and freedom should be given to local managers to achieve this task. Using the concept of ‘pragmatic localism’ and grounded examples from a recent initiative - Local Area Agreements - it is highlighted that there are signs that local state management of national policy could be becoming increasingly adaptable, enabling managers to deal with the fluid nature of ongoing public policy reform, although this is far from a completed project with many factors still constraining this change process.     

坦桑尼亚矿产资源及矿业投资环境

坦桑尼亚位于非洲东南部, 是"一带一路"倡议落地非洲的桥头堡, 同时也是中国对非工业合作、产能合作的先行先试国家。在研究坦桑尼亚矿产资源概况、矿业开发现状的基础上, 从政局稳定性、金融环境等方面对中资企业赴坦开展矿业投资的前景进行了分析。研究表明, 坦桑尼亚矿产资源丰富、矿业开发潜力巨大, 而且政局稳定, 金融环境良好, 特别是新总统哈桑执政以来, 传递诸多有利的投资环境信息。虽然存在基础设施落后、基础地质资料缺乏及政府腐败等不利因素, 但投资者可先从资源丰富、开发基础较好的金矿入手, 瞅准机会投资开发潜力较大的石墨、稀土等矿种; 同时, 注重矿业探、采、选、冶上下游一体化的产业链运营模式, 统筹布局, 带动当地经济发展。     

浅谈新形势下国土资源执法监察工作

在国家从严土地管理的新形势下,基层国土资源管理部门应科学地分析当前执法监察工作所面临的新形势,冷静地面对新问题,大胆地应对新挑战。要紧抓机遇,破解难题,就要从发挥主观能动性入手,大力推行治根治本之策,坚持＂六个结合＂,重拳出击国土资源违法行为,担负起保护土地,促进地方经济发展的重任。     

生态区绿色勘查评价方法及评价标准探讨

绿色勘查为绿色发展在地质工作中的具体体现,我国在实施绿色勘查方面起步较晚,至今国家层面仍未出台统一的评价方法与评价标准,从而制约着对绿色勘查的认识及理解。通过查阅国家及地方关于地质勘查指导原则及规范标准,总结国内自实施绿色勘查以来取得的成就,分析国外矿业大国在不同生态区实行的地质勘查政策及评价标准。最终,结合我国地质勘查问题及现状、区域矿产资源分布与经济状况,提出不同生态区绿色勘查评价方法及准则。对地质勘查造成的影响进行量化,提出勘查工作在生态保护区、脆弱区、一般区分别达到95分、90分、85分以上者可称达到绿色勘查标准。并建议我国适当改变生态保护区、脆弱区地质工作政策,使环境保护与资源勘查、经济发展相协调。     

Development potential of Kappatagudda hill ranges in Gadag district, Karnataka

Gadag district in Karnataka, being drought prone with vast stretches of dry land, holds substantial prospect for overall development in general and gold resources in particular. The Kappatagudda hill ranges in the district can be a target of economic and environmental development initiatives as it encompasses huge gold reserves that are partially exploited and physiographic features that could be used for impounding river water pumped during rainy season for use in the dry seasons and development of medicinal plant reserves besides wind power.. The proposal to declare the Kappatagudda hill ranges as wildlife sanctuary may not be in the public interest of more than 100,000 population whose mainstay is agriculture. The cause of public opposition and also the better prospects of the region have to be understood before declaring a large area as wildlife sanctuary that imposes restriction for the development opportunity at a later date. This article presents an overview of the natural resources potential and opportunities for harnessing the same.     

Planning regional development: Promoting small settlements in a trans-frontier situation

Under communism local authorities tended to be largely passive bystanders in a regional development process which emerged through the central planning process through the spatial allocations of investment by government ministries. Attention was given to physical planning, but comparatively little material entered the public domain on location policy and spatial priorities generally, apart from the objective of greater equality between regions and a commitment to backward areas generally. Now that much investment is down to private enterprise and government has become more decentralised and accountable, there is a need for concepts and strategies to coordinate public sector investment and provide guidelines for the evaluation of private development proposals. At the same time, there is an open competition for investment which requires communities to promote themselves in terms of their identity and development potential. This paper offers an overview by taking two countries - Hungary and Romania - where progress can be compared and where the focus can be placed on a common frontier which is diverting attention from conventional regional planning to cross-border cooperation. In both contexts however, attention is given to the ways in which planning can divert investment away from the main centres to the peripheral areas, including action to strengthen the role of small towns and also to improve cohesion among functionally-related groups of settlements and communes. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.