DIE ontwikkeling van ' subregionale insetuitsettabel as basis vir streekindeling in suid-afrika.

Abstract

Economic growth and economic development are the basis on which the success of a country depends. Without economic growth an increase in wealth would not be possible. Different regions experience different types of economic growth and economic development. Herrick and Kindleberger (1983:124) are of the opinion that " ... within countries, geographic regions experience different rhythms of development". The unequal distribution of economic activity leads to various unequal situations in different regions. Metropolitan cities attract industries and people and therefore contribute to the unequal distribution of economic activity. Because South Africa is too big to manage growth and development as a whole, regions must be created. However, the regions that exist at the present are not divided according to economic principles and therefore cannot help to get rid of the unequal distribution of economic activity. One of the answers would thus would be to redivide South Africa into regions on an economic basis. Various economic methods exist which can be used as basis for dividing South Africa into new regions. Because of the important part that linkages between sectors and regions play in growth and development these linkages must be taken into account. Linkages between the various sectors and between the various regions and sub regions must be quantified. The use of a regional and sub- regional input-qutput table is therefore compulsary as it is possible to quantify these linkages from the input-output table. By using the input-output table on various regional levels it would be possible to couple regions to one another that would make the regions economicly viable. Each region will then be able to develop as a sub-region of the country and therefore add to growth and development of the country as a whole. The study made use of statistical as well as empirical data.