სივრცით-ტერიტორიული მოწყობა და რეგიონების ეკონომიკური განვითარების შესაძლებლობები

Regional development and regional policy are the basis of a country's economic growth.
Each region has its own role in the development of the country, which is related to the
efficient use of their resources.
The aim of the paper is to develop recommendations for economic development
opportunities in the regions of Georgia based on the study of spatial arrangement models
focused on economic development and analysis of economic growth approaches of
territorial units.
Research results enabled us to establish criteria for evaluating the effectiveness of the
regional division; measure the concentration of economic sectors in territorial units; assess
the levels of distribution of economic activity; revealed the level of economic
diversification for each sector; show economic interdependence and connections between
settlements, “growth centers” and the opportunities to benefit other settlement by
supporting development of centers (based on the example of Kazbegi municipality and the
results of a qualitative research conducted).
The study examined the priorities set by official policy papers and research of foreign
experience that allowed us to elaborate recommendations for regional policy improvement.
Research results showed that the development perspective and opportunities for economic
convergence are higher for the regions that have economic centers; it is unreasonable to
choose a strategy to slow down the growth of relatively rich regions with growing
economies and to promote poorer regions, especially for developing countries having the
limited resources; Georgia can use the Polish experience, including a new approach to
investment promotion, which envisages the replacement of special economic zones by the
whole area of the country; concentrated growth in cities should be perceived as a strength
and emphasis should be placed on their economic connection to other territorial units;
economic activity is already diversified among the regions, which requires policy makers
to focus on more sectoral specialization.
The approaches, opinions, conclusions and recommendations presented in the paper
provide an opportunity to improve the planning of spatial-territorial arrangement in
Georgia and to use the opportunities for economic development of the regions more
effectively and thoroughly.