In a project for the Government of Turkey, funded by UNDP, ETG professionals worked with a team of international experts to design a vision, strategy and action plan for Southeast Anatolia region of Turkey—one of Turkey’s most important and challenging regions, bordering Syria and Iraq. The competitiveness agenda was designed as an effort to develop a framework for transforming the region’s economy.   The Competitiveness Agenda charts a new sustainable economic direction for the region and develop a cohesive framework for its further elaboration and implementation.  In particular, the project showed how the region can become a new, value-added economy—based on reengaging its identity as the “cradle of sustainable civilization”—thereby both renewing the Region’s cultural and economic distinctiveness and establishing the Region as a new role model for developing regions in Turkey and worldwide.  The Agenda specifically charts a roadmap for the region to leverage its high concentration of renewable energy (hydro, solar, wind), organic agriculture and food procesing, organic cotton and textile production, and sustainable tourism to position the region as a center for sustainable development in the developing world. The consultant team conducted research, interviews, analysed sectors, markets, and developed a comprehensive economic vision, strategy and action plan for the region.  The Competitiveness Agenda was presented and accepted by the Government of Turkey and resulted in budget allocations of over $12 billion over the next five years.