This thesis is the first study in South Africa to explore the concept of logistics cities in
peripheral areas with in the context of local economic development. Although the term
logistics city is used freely to denote cities in which logistics forms an important part of
their economic base â as is the case in Dubai, Shangai and Zaragoza â the body of
academic literature on the topic is extremely limited. The logistics city concept was
formulated in Australia as an academic concept from approximately 2006 onwards. In
South Africa, there is seemingly a tendency among decision makers to regard the mere
existence of an airport, especially its potential transformation into an air-freight hub, as a
possible local economic development initiative.
The aim of this study was to evaluate Upington (as a peripheral area within the South
African economy) and its ability to utilise the Upington International Airport as a local
economic development initiative, specifically from the perspective of a logistics city. The
study analysed the latest theoretical developments in location theory, specifically the new
economic 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 by
globalisation and the strides made in technology, argues that â theoretically at least â
peripheral regions could grow through the development of logistic clusters at the location
of an airport. In addition, given the current capacity problems at OR Tambo International
Airport, the NEG should pave the way for the development of a logistics facility at the
UIA, the more so from the perspective of the logistics city concept. The study confirmed
that, in spite of the theoretical opportunities presented by the NEG, the logistics city
concept and the incorporation of an air-freight hub in provincial policy and strategy
documents, air-freight hub development is still fundamentally dependent on market
conditions and that the existence of well-developed airport infrastructure alone is not
sufficient reason for transforming a regional airport in a peripheral area into a logistics
facility.
The study further showed that despite the increasing range of local economic
development (LED) research in South Africa, academic literature focusing on the relationship between air-freight transport, logistics and LED is virtually non-existent.
Moreover, the study showed that LED efforts are seriously hampered by a number of
issues, such as the lack of assimilation of the logistics and air-freight industries into local
economic development policy and plans, a lack of capacity at the institutional level, the
lack 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 the
developmental role of regional airports in South Africa. The dominance of ACSA, and
the companyâs own lack of a strategic focus on regional airports, has also been shown to
be problematic.
The study further demonstrated efficient logistics to be an important determinant of a
countryâs competitiveness and that South Africa may lose competiveness because both of
high logistics costs and low logistics performance levels. The study also showed that
there is generally a lack of accurate information and data on logistics and air freight in
South Africa, particularly at the regional and the local level, which makes effective and
integrated planning even more difficult.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:ufs/oai:etd.uovs.ac.za:etd-07182013-090615 |
| Date | 18 July 2013 |
| Creators | Pretorius, Marius Pieter |
| Contributors | Dr H Joynt, Prof JGL Marais |
| Publisher | University of the Free State |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | en-uk |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.uovs.ac.za//theses/available/etd-07182013-090615/restricted/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to University Free State or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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