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Regional Development
Equality Provinces deserve equality of resources, services and income; they should be equally valuable and inhabitable. Otherwise, poor provinces should receive more privileges until they improve. It's ideal if provinces have equal space, population size, revenue, legal privileges, and physical and human resources (people with unique skills, experiences, education, IQ, health, culture, etc.). However, as this is difficult in reality, the state should do its best to make living conditions equally desirable in each province, fitting each individual's needs. EVERY province should have basic living conditions and infrastructure before finding its own niche. A poor province can initially receive extra advantages from the state, e.g. more subsidies/lenient laws/media attention/etc., to encourage visitors, investors and inhabitants there. Economically, every human deserves basic income levels, above which the more hard-working and gifted can receive more too, as long as they truly BENEFIT society. Diversity Equality doesn't mean similarity. Each province should have a unique role to play, by benefiting from its unique resources, or creating its own if needed. Although every province (and human) aspires for self-sufficiency (needing nothing from others), the diversity that uniqueness creates is always more "economical and enjoyable," where provinces complete each other. The closer, more connected provinces are, the more chances of cooperation they have. Every region should have its attraction, by being unique/specialized in the following:
It's best when a province keeps "related" resources together, for best economy and efficiency. Examples of resource co-ordination: - An industrial area should be close to the source of raw materials it uses (mine/field/port/crops/etc.), the universities/schools/training centers where its workers learn, the scientific institutes doing research on its products, and the housing communities of workers. Since factories consume much energy in general, they need to be closest to power sources/plants/grids. Factories manufacturing related/preliminary products for other factories should be close to them. Recycling factories should be close to the industrial wastes of other factories, and to residential/commercial areas according to their specialty. Factories whose products are to be exported or distributed country-wide should be close to ports and main country markets. - Farms are to be close to factories of food products/textiles/paper/oils/cosmetics/medicine and above all to markets, for maximum food quality and to act as a green belt against pollution. Similarly, animal/fish farms/factories/markets should be close to where they are grown. - Historic sites can have nearby museums, culture centers, gift shops, local craftsmanship/industries, hotels and entertainment facilities for tourists, international events (for the national/international symbolism of such sites, and the facilities already been built), etc. - Coastal areas are important for tourism, trade and security. Military bases should be near ports for protecting cruising and cargo ships, as well as resorts and other facilities. Beach land is best benefited from by being turned into resorts, hotels, parks, institutes, and international hubs, for temporary residence rather than sold to few individuals for permanent public residence. This is doubly useful, preventing individuals from blocking the sea & all projects thereby, while creating jobs for those project whose inhabitants' houses and other city facilities will have more space and be well-planned further into land, away from the beach. This allows maximum visitors, more revenue, and diverse activities -- recreational, commercial, scientific, political, etc. -- all year long. * * * Like in-region coordination, coordination among regions, esp. neighboring ones, should be planned for as well to complete one another. A region lacking a certain resource should seek it from the nearest region. It should do so esp. for "basic resources" it misses. A region rich in minerals may need more labor force and experts from a more populous region, or food products from an agricultural region. A region rich in tourist attractions may need more experts from media, travel agencies, designing and infrastructure. A strategic region, of geographical or historical significance, may need more security presence, conference tourism, and political organizations and institutes, local and international. Service Industry is the pivot of development, and factories are the nucleus of a fast-growing community. It employs maximum workers, brings in most revenue, and speeds up progress in general. Starting a factory requires all the coordinated resources mentioned before: good education/training, nearby raw materials, proper roads, workers' residential areas, services, and above all state support, financially, legally, etc. Since health risks are possible anywhere anytime, as they are more related to humans than places, hospitals are the primary service to provide first and foremost when planning for long residence. A good health service requires up-to-date well-trained well-educated medial workers and well-funded medical equipments. A new region can "import" well-paid doctors, until it has its own medical schools. Funding both hospitals and universities should derive basically from exploiting the natural resources the region has, or the extra budget quota assigned by the central federal government until the region develops its own funding sources. Otherwise, if government is economically and administratively incapable, individuals have to support it or work on their own through the public sector: NGO's, people's funding/donation, businessmen, bank loans, private media, etc. A costly private sector service (hospital/school/factory/etc.) is better than none. Although security is first as a priority, it usually needs less funding than other fields: health, transportation, housing, etc. Meanwhile, education is the field that usually consumes most of a region's budget, as mental development leads to all other types of development. Without good education, no advanced industries, proper health care, sufficient income levels, safety or well-being of citizens is possible. Schools/colleges should help students benefit from each province resources and become active in their respective communities. When funding is available, developing new communities in a region starts with its infrastructure: water, energy, communication, and living necessities--housing, food, health, and security. Like the development of human civilization, developing new communities starts with water and agriculture, agricultural industries, then the more advanced industries. Even when a place has other non-agricultural resources, its inhabitants better have their own water supply and food self-sufficiency first (and food quality, as distance damages some food types), and a green belt for protection from pollution/land damage and for settlement separation. Communication Since achieving equality is a difficult incremental process, citizens should make up by MOVING between different places to satisfy their different needs. This requires efficient transportation and communication in general. Mobility is easier and safer to some people than others (the old, disabled, poor, or anyone attached to place physically, socially or psychologically). Traveling or temporary residence is a compromise until more equality is achieved country-wide. Society should be more mobile for citizens to better explore and learn about their country, before deciding which part of it fits them most, for the short or long term. It should facilitate the following:
Regional Planning | Regional Border | Regional Security | Regional Governance A Multipolar World | Improving Slums | Capital City
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