Role of Transport Sector on Regional Development

 

Role of Transport Sector on Regional Development

 

Introduction

The latter half of the twentieth century has been marked with amazing changes in technology, transportation, and communication and, in varying degrees, a spread of geo-political stability that has accompanied economic affluence for many citizens in industrialized and developing countries throughout the world. These changes have triggered the development of a number of new industries and the substantial evolution of existing industries to address the needs of increasingly prosperous, educated, and sophisticated post-industrial societies. One of these industries, tourism, has quietly emerged to become an important force in many societies and economies in various parts of the world.

            This study will focus on the direct effect of establishing and improving the transportation routes all over the vast land of Sri Lanka. Development on modes of transportation as well as development projects on public roads and highways initiated by the local government units will be considered in addressing the difference of lifestyle that the citizens of Sri Lanka experience that possibly dictates the unequal economic opportunities that the different Sri Lankan communities deal with.

 

Statement of the Problem

            This study aims to address the role of transport sector in regional development. The following are the questions that this study aims to answer:  

What are the ways that transport sector can help regional development in Sri Lanka?

What are the effects of having efficient transportation sector in the country?

What are the plans and policies of the government of Sri Lanka in addressing the underdevelopment of transportation services and inaccessibility in the country?

 

Objectives of the Study

            Generally, this study aims to provide up to date research the assessment of the role of transport sector in regional development.    This study aims to achieve the following research findings to be able to provide recommendations that will be helpful in addressing the issue on economic disparity in Sri Lanka:

 

1.    To provide a description of Sri Lanka’s regional development brought by the transport sector

2.    To identify how transport sector enable Sri Lanka to enhance their economic status..

3.    To enumerate the problems accessibility and transportation problems that the Sri Lankan people in the interior provinces face relative to their economic aspirations and opportunities.

 

4.    To identify the economic plans and policies that the Sri Lankan government has to offer to its people living in the less developed parts of the country especially the projects that addresses the need for efficient transportation for effective trade and communication in the domestic domain.

 

 

Overview of Methodology

            The participants in the survey will consist of 75 respondents from the developed coastal areas and 75 respondents from the central and western interior provinces of the country. The coastal areas and the respondents will be selected using the non-purposive multi-level sampling technique so as to come up with reliable and valid data. The participants of the six focus group discussion will all come from the specified interior provinces from which the researcher will elicit information relevant to the issue at hand which concerns the economic problems related to unequal economic opportunities that these people deal with. There should be at least five government officials who will be interviewed. They are the provincial leaders from the less developed central and western provinces of Sri Lanka who have the knowledge of the plans and projects of the national government.

            The survey will be analyzed using the simple frequency and correlation statistical methods to process and manipulate the data according to the needs and concern of the study. Tables will be used to clearly present empirical results of the survey. Interpretation and analysis of the quantitative data will follow and will be related to the qualitative findings of the focus group discussions and key informant interviews.

The data elicited from the focus group discussions and the key informant interviews will be extensively studied and analyzed to distinguish the common and different concerns of the people in the interior provincial areas and will be presented in matrices with the use of open-coding method. Further interpretation and analysis will be generated after the axial coding procedure.

 

Reference

Vazquez – Barquero (1992). A. Endogenous Development: Networking , Innovation, Institutions, and Cites. Routledgem London, 21

 

 

 

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