Logistical cities in peripheral areas

[摘要] English: This thesis is the first study in South Africa to explore the concept of logistics cities inperipheral areas with in the context of local economic development. Although the termlogistics city is used freely to denote cities in which logistics forms an important part oftheir economic base - as is the case in Dubai, Shangai and Zaragoza - the body ofacademic literature on the topic is extremely limited. The logistics city concept wasformulated in Australia as an academic concept from approximately 2006 onwards. InSouth Africa, there is seemingly a tendency among decision makers to regard the mereexistence of an airport, especially its potential transformation into an air-freight hub, as apossible local economic development initiative.The aim of this study was to evaluate Upington (as a peripheral area within the SouthAfrican economy) and its ability to utilise the Upington International Airport as a localeconomic development initiative, specifically from the perspective of a logistics city. Thestudy analysed the latest theoretical developments in location theory, specifically the neweconomic geography (NEG) and cluster theory as a basis of the logistics city. The NEG,which was developed in the 1990s in response to the changes brought about byglobalisation and the strides made in technology, argues that - theoretically at least -peripheral regions could grow through the development of logistic clusters at the locationof an airport. In addition, given the current capacity problems at OR Tambo InternationalAirport, the NEG should pave the way for the development of a logistics facility at theUTA, the more so from the perspective of the logistics city concept. The study confirmedthat, in spite of the theoretical opportunities presented by the NEG, the logistics cityconcept and the incorporation of an air-freight hub in provincial policy and strategydocuments, air-freight hub development is still fundamentally dependent on marketconditions and that the existence of well-developed airport infrastructure alone is notsufficient reason for transforming a regional airport in a peripheral area into a logisticsfacility.The study further showed that despite the increasing range of local economicdevelopment (LED) research in South Africa, academic literature focusing on therelationship between air-freight transport, logistics and LED is virtually non-existent.Moreover, the study showed that LED efforts are seriously hampered by a number ofissues, such as the lack of assimilation of the logistics and air-freight industries into localeconomic development policy and plans, a lack of capacity at the institutional level, thelack of integrated planning between the spheres of government, the LED stakeholders,parastatals, agencies and the private sector and also the lack of clear policies on thedevelopmental role of regional airports in South Africa. The dominance of ACSA, andthe company's own lack of a strategic focus on regional airports, has also been shown tobe problematic.The study further demonstrated efficient logistics to be an important determinant of acountry's competitiveness and that South Africa may lose competiveness because both ofhigh logistics costs and low logistics performance levels. The study also showed thatthere is generally a lack of accurate information and data on logistics and air freight inSouth Africa, particularly at the regional and the local level, which makes effective andintegrated planning even more difficult.

[发布机构] University of the Free State