province is not homogeneous to any other province in the country. The distance of the closest
province to this province is far above our minimum critical distance. At the same time this
closest province would be also the closest neighbour to the group as there is only one member
in this group.
Determining regional targets
One of the important steps in planning is the choice of targets. Sometimes these targets are
obtained by considering the potential capacity of a country, defined by its past performance and
sometimes by considering the status of the neighbouring countries or regions. Such an
approach for regional planning within a country is more justified since it may be utilised for the
purpose of reducing regional disparities within the context of a national plan/programme. In
this case a simple and logical approach is to answer the following questions: (a) which regions
are at a higher level of development? And (b) how far are they, in terms of development, from
each other (what are the extent of disparities)?
The above approach can help us to answer these questions. The first question is answered by
obtaining the RHDI and the next question may be answered by studying the matrix of distances,
D, in Table B2. This matrix provides the required information for determining the
homogeneous groups of provinces. The average of actual values of indicators for those
provinces which are homogenous to province p and also have a higher RHDI than province p
may be taken as the approximate potential targets for province p.
At this stage, the procedure may be summarised as follows:
1. Compute the RHDI and rank the provinces accordingly (Table 1)
2. Compute the matrix of distances D and compute d(+) and d(-) (Table B2).
3. To find the targets for province p look at the pth row of matrix D and determine all
provinces whose distances from province p are between d(+) and d(-).
4. Exclude from this group those provinces which are at a lower level of development than
province p according to the RHDI.
5. The averages of actual values for indicators belonging to the remaining members of the
group and province p itself would constitute a set of acceptable and attainable targets for
province p.
10