While the role of cities in the global economic structure is growing, cities continue to be the main elements of development. National development programs focusing on the local administrations for the development strategies while local governments are looking for projects that will turn their economic potentials into reality.
A city is considered to be a competitive city if its companies and industries help to create jobs, increase productivity and increase citizens’ income. This situation; As the main necessity of development, it pushes cities to make them competitive.
Today, innovation is the most important factor that nourishes urban competitiveness. More efficient production of high value-added products and services brings along productivity and prosperity. For this reason, the conditions for the creation of creative and developed industries in the cities are the main actors of economic growth.
At this point, cities should develop themselves day by day for the growth and sustainability of the urban innovation ecosystem. Traditional production and routine cognitive skills lose their function and enable the creation of new employment and growth resources.
In a new competitive environment based on information technologies, where information technologies are at the forefront, cities are the focal point and can be added to global networks as much as their competitiveness allows. In this context; The traditional regional policies based on standard recipes established to address inter-regional development levels have been replaced by innovative strategies focused on the competitiveness of the regions.
Brain power has now changed to muscle power as a basis for prosperity within a competitive global economy. The most important element of success is the sharing of information has become the most important competitive element of our age. When we look at the catalysts of innovative communities around the world; In general, they carry out economy-wide reforms for competitive cities in a number of areas, such as teams, innovation centers, incubators, construction areas and fab laboratories. They also pay close attention to the tradable local sectors and engage in specific initiatives for specific sectors and investors.
Therefore, the competitiveness of the regions should be increased by focusing on urban development, by developing innovation capacity, by increasing the entrepreneurship and by developing human capital and social capital. Instead of providing direct assistance to the regions, mobilization tools should be created in line with the policies that will trigger a sustainable development process and increase the competitiveness of the region by mobilizing the resources of the region. In this direction, the main targets of public investments are; the services provided by traditional and innovative infrastructure investments, science and technology parks, research institutes and technology centers need to be developed.
The cities are becoming increasingly prominent in, in particular, strengthening the supply structure of the region, attracting investors from outside the region, localization of decision-making process, region specificity, human capital, social capital, local business culture, information transfer networks, quality of production factors and system, learning from regional experiences and concepts such as innovations, competitive regions
Today, innovative investments in cities are essential for the future. Once built, the structure of a city cannot be easily reshaped. Failure to plan for future expansion can lead to enormous resources and large inefficiencies that will be needed to be corrected for decades. Therefore, strategic city planning through good governance, planning the enlargement plan, helps urban opportunities and opportunities. Good governance for cities includes the decision-making process, which is supported at the national level, and especially in the metropolitan areas, at city governing level in administrative borders.
Implementation of the right projects at the right time creates unique opportunities for economic growth and development at the urban and national scale, especially in the local economies. The production, productivity and profit-oriented competition environment among the firms at the micro-economic level provides sustainable and high quality of life for the regions and cities at the macro level.
As a result, today the cities are taken to the centers of globalization and localization movements for purposes such as technological developments, new approaches in development policies, new and innovative production processes, getting share from limited resources. Cities, which are not part of a whole by the globalization of national borders, need more investments, more added value, new development strategies and innovative investments to be successful and sustainable.