The role of new knowledge-based cities in enhancing national competitiveness Case study: The new city of Andishe

Knowledge-based city is a new concept in the new millennium. Although some signs of the concept of knowledge city can be traced to a decade ago, but it was since the begining of the twenty-first century that some cities around the world tended towards the concept of knowledg-based development. The present study reviews the role of new knowledge-based cities in enhancing national competitiveness in a new city named Andishe by using a descriptive- analytic approach. The results revolve around three main areas, i.e. knowledge-based, competitiveness, and modern developed. The multi-criteria decision analysis methodology (TOPSIS) was used to analyse the results. According to the findings resulted from TOPSIS, the sub-criterion “quality of life” for the advanced component, the sub-criterion “product factors” for the competitiveness component, and the sub-criterion “caring about the potential ability of citizens” for the knowledge-based, respectively, were the first three priorities. Thus, after integrating the sub-criteria, results show that “caring about the potential ability of citizens”, “high quality for life” and “access to information technology” are the first three priorities with 1, 0.377, and 0.324 respectively as their scores, and other sub-criteria, such as research activities, demand condititions, and trade networks are the last priorities, and their impact is less than other components.