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Academics, policy-makers and consultants have been increasingly focusing upon the‘region’ as the crucible of economic development. This regionalist approach places institutions at the centre of the process of stimulating growth. Much debate has been ongoing in academic circles, particularly those inhabited by economic geographers, about the veracity of the regionalist approach and the explanatory power of the terminology associated with it. This paper analyses explicit efforts to engender regional economic development in the West Coast of South Africa. Our empirical evaluation indicates that policy actors have sought to upgrade the institutional infrastructure of the region and that some significant achievements are evident within this realm. However, these achievements are yet to be associated with sustained regional economic takeoff. The paper concludes by asking searching questions about the ability of the regionalist approach to deliver meaningful socio-economic transformation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

South Africa is one of the wealthiest countries on the African continent. The high national level (and growth) of GDP per capita, however, masks significant differences in economic performance across South Africa's regions. This paper uses (spatial) Markov chain techniques to describe the evolution of the entire cross-section regional income distribution in terms of its intra-distributional characteristics during the post-Apartheid period. The results indicate a heavily diverging regional income distribution. Relatively poor regions are likely to remain poor or become even poorer and the richest regions will maintain their lead in terms of income levels. Explicitly taking account of space furthermore shows that these high-income regions are acting as local growth poles, absorbing economic activity from their immediate surroundings. Location, trade, education, and the variable fortune of the gold mining industry seem to be important determinants of the observed evolution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The promotion of tourism has been identified as a key strategy that can lead to economic upliftment, community development and poverty relief in the developing world. In the last few years, tourism has also emerged as a significant development option in post–apartheid South Africa. In the context of some current debates on tourism in poor countries, the paper examines how economic, social and environmental resources are being utilized to promote tourism as a local economic development strategy in South Africa, and more specifically it focuses on current local government endeavours in this regard and two communities that have suffered the loss of their economic resource base. Tourism–based development initiatives, one in KwaZulu–Natal and one in the Western Cape, are evaluated in the context of generating economic growth, alleviating poverty and addressing the apartheid legacy of discrimination and inequality. The significance of the dynamics of development processes involved in these initiatives has much wider relevance for local economic development, both within South Africa and elsewhere. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Spatial development initiatives (SDIs) are becoming a critical feature in the planning for reconstruction in post-apartheid South (and Southern) Africa. The SDI programme marks a fundamental break with the trajectories and initiatives for economic and spatial planning of the apartheid past. The objective in this paper is to examine the record and developmental impact of SDI planning in South (ern) Africa through the lens of the most well-known SDI, the Maputo Development Corridor or Maputo SDI. The cross-border nature of the Maputo SDI makes it an important case study in terms of a recent shift in focus of the SDI programme towards a greater role for strengthening the regional Southern African economy. It is argued that the case of the Maputo SDI represents one illustration of the construction or configuring of a 'new regionalism' in Southern Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since 1994 South Africa's macroeconomic strategy has sought to accommodate the forces of globalisation and ensure the country's re-entry into the global economy after two decades (1970-90) of relative international economic isolation. One key component of restructuring for globalisation has been a shift in the burden of responsibility for economic development from national to local government level and of the promotion of local economic development (LED) planning across post-apartheid South Africa. This paper focuses on the issue of LED planning in South Africa as a case study in the local consequences and reactions to globalisation of city regions in the global periphery. The planning of LED in South Africa incorporates international trends towards local promotion of economic growth but also includes a distinct and strong focus on poverty alleviation to deal with the apartheid legacy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research note examines the determinants of economic growth at the sub-national level in South Africa, and investigates cross-regional medium term (1998–2002) growth rate differentials between 354 magisterial districts. A dynamic panel data regression model is used that includes measures of geography (distance and natural resources) as well as recent estimates of physical and human capital. We find that the significant determinants of local economic growth are distance from internal markets, human capital, export propensity, and the capital stock. Distance from international harbours, as a measure of transport costs, and urban agglomeration (or density) affects growth indirectly through its significant effect on the ability of a region to export. Overall, these results indicate that geography is important, independent of its effects on institutions, for economic growth. Bearing in mind a medium-term focus, no evidence of absolute convergence could be found over a five-year period, but the evidence tentatively suggests beta convergence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Local Economic Development is (LED) an activity of increasing importance in the developing world as globalisation produces new roles for local governments. As compared to a growing number of urban initiatives for LED, rural LED initiatives are relatively undeveloped. In this paper, the focus is upon South Africa, where the post-apartheid government has sought to encourage both urban and rural LED initiatives. Programmes of land reform and restitution in South Africa result in the resettlement or return to the land of communities formerly dispossessed under apartheid. A critical element of planning for successful resettlement is the implementation of LED programmes. Schmidtsdrift in Northern Cape is examined as an example of participatory LED in a developing rural context. Rural LED in South Africa is distinguished by its focus upon poverty alleviation in the context of addressing the legacies of apartheid. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]