期刊名称：International Journal of Economics and Finance Studies
电子版ISSN：1309-8055
出版年度：2018
卷号：10
期号：1
页码：16
出版社：Social Sciences Research Society
摘要：Globally, local economic development (LED) is recognised as a strategic processthat assists with the acceleration of economic development in local regions, inboth developed and in developing countries. Economic development practitionershave a need for user-friendly assessment instruments and tools to analyse andcompare economic development in regions. The aim of the study was therefore todevelop and apply an instrument to assess the economic development potential ofa region since such a comprehensive strategic and practical instrument does notexist. Various types of regions, from national to local, could be assessed andcompared using the instrument. The development potential (DP) of a region hasbeen formulated as the aggregate of all local resources (R) multiplied by theaggregate of local capacity (C); therefore DP = R x C. Extensive research has leadto the identification of variables contributing to the extent of the local resourcesand capacity. The methodology included the identification of variablesrepresenting capacity and resources and the allocation of values for each variablethrough a quantitative survey method which included 380 local business people.The instrument was tested in a developing region in South Africa known as the“Vaal-Triangle” region, which includes the municipal areas of Emfuleni,Metsimaholo and Midvaal. In testing and applying the instrument in the studyregion, it was found that all three areas had low economic development indexes ofbelow 30 (where the maximum is 100). The instrument identified the variablesresponsible for this relatively low index and those factors need to be addressed ina LED strategy. In addition, the instrument could assist development practitionersto assess the economic development potential for a region and to formulatestrategies to improve the potential.
关键词：Assessment instrument; development potential; local economic;development (LED); regional development; Vaal-Triangle region.
