Explaining the Competitiveness of West Azerbaijan Province with a Foresight Approach

Development is an important issue in the policy of developing countries such as Iran. In the meantime, paying attention to low-development areas, espite the high potentials, canbe considered in the direction of sustainable development, where competitiveness as a new approach tries to identify the capabilities of regions to emerge in the field of competitiveness. In this context, given that wehave entered the era of uncertainty, in order to maintain the status of survival and continuity, it is necessary to pay attention to the conditions and contexts of competitiveness.Therefore, the present study, withthe aim of explaining the competitivenessof West Azerbaijanprovince,has triedto identify theprimary and key factors affecting the competitivenessof the province, to identify possible competitiveness scenariosin thefuture horizon, nd finally the reasons for such scenarios to decide Appropriate actiontoimprove thecompetitivenessof the province, to lead the officials. For this purpose, 54 indicators in 4 dimensionsthat have been identifiedbasedonlibrary-field studies have beenanalyzedusing micmacsoftware, ScenarioWizardand IPA model.It should be noted that since the present study was basedon experts,the research sampleof 20 people was selected in a targeted manner (snowball).Theresultsof the research show that the competitiveness patternof West Azerbaijan province hasbeenunstable and the probable situation for the future of the province's competitiveness has been compatible scenarios with unfavorable scenarios having a higher realization rate, which is why Conditions have been less attention to high-quality indicators such as(investment security, resilience to infectious diseases,branding, free competitionand meritocracy,paving theway for the development of a creative society), while emphasizing on some indicators such as monopoly of production activities, export-import have  caused cost loss.