In focusing on regional development and industrialization, this article highlights three main themes: the relevance to developing countries of the new industrial district concept; the apparent continued need to theorize agglomerated industrial growth; and the relevance of agricultural development to local and regional industrial development. It concludes that the new industrial district concept is not relevant to understanding industrialization in the peripheral regions of developing countries and that despite the introduction of decentralization policies, local industrial development will, as before, very largely depend on central government resource allocation, the stability of government and the role played by large and medium scale enterprises, including Multi-National Corporations (MNCs). It is also argued that without special eorts to develop agriculture, local and regional industrial development are less likely to occur.

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The author is grateful to David M. Dunham, with whom he discussed earlier drafts, and to Sander Schoevers who drew the maps."Spatial Structure and Decision Making", Development and Change, V O~. I, 1, pp. 50-75. See also: Regional Planning; A Systems Approach (Rotterdam, 197 I ) Ch. 11, for a more elaborated version.