Regional Development Strategies Key factors for success Claudiu N' Cosier NorthWest RDA Director, Ro

1
Regional Development StrategiesKey factors
for successClaudiu N. CosierNorth-West RDA
Director, Romania
2

• Context (the region, the RDA)
• Regional development strategy as a process
• main elements
• key factors for success
• The impact of the strategies

3
The Region-Northern Transylvania

• 2.75 million inhabitants
• 6 counties, 421 local administrative units
• 14.32 of surface of Romania
• Rural region (45 rural population)
• In 1999
• 10 unemployment rate
• Industrial restructuring
• Starting of preparation of national development
  plan to be negotiated with EC

4
The North-West Regional Development Agency

• established in 1999, 40 employees(2004)
• Executive body of Regional Council, the board of
  local administrations associated through a
  convention
• Decentralised institution
• Intermediate body
• the voice of local administrations in the fields
  related to development
• delegated tasks in implementing the policies

5
Regional Development Strategy-a continuous
process

• Purpose and benefits
• Ensuring a common vision
• Ensuring coordination of interventions in
  different places in region
• Ensuring the impact of the interventions by
  coordination with other interventions at local
  level

• Purpose and benefits
• The effect of multiplication of public
  investments
• Ensuring transfer of information and of
  competencies at local level
• Send inputs to the national level
• Legitimacy

6
Key factors for success

• Clear methodological guidelines
• Reasonable timetable
• Partnership approach
• Follow-up fostering projects
• Monitoring and evaluation

7
Clear methodological guidelines

• Scope of the document
• Clear links with upper and lower level
• documents
• How-to instructions

8
Reasonable timetable

• Time consuming activities
• building an effective partnership network
• drafting the document
• regional consensus upon the document
• debate and comments on the national planning
  documents
• Each activity has its own natural pace!

9
Partnership networks

• What do we forget?
• Partners are
• individuals
• representing institutions
• carrying projects and proving co-financing
• beside providing data and out-sourced expertise

10
Partnership networks

• Working groups
• thematic working groups vs. territorial working
  groups
• selection of partnership institutions
• provision of financial resources
• working procedures
• expected outputs

11
Partnership networks

• Ensuring acceptance and fostering
• ownership
• decision mechanisms
• all-stakeholders consultations
• transparency through media coverage, open public
  meetings and web tools
• appropriate location and other incentives
• endorsement of the final version by a legitimate
  authority

12
Follow-up fostering projects

• Fostering projects
• communication campaigns
• project ideas
• technical assistance for project definition
• identification of alternative sources of
  financing
• Measures should be checked for projects
• before they are included in the strategy
• Keep concentration in programming!

13
Follow-up fostering projects

• 2000 - financing SMEs
• basic infrastructure
• business infrastructure (parks)
• 2002 tourism (winter, balnear)
• vocational system
• 2004 SMEs (incubators, inovation)
• tourism (termal)

14
Monitoring and evaluation

• Key issues
• mechanisms and procedures
• transparency
• periodicity
• Monitoring is for identifying remedial actions
• Evaluation is for identifying lessons for future
  planning

15
Impact of strategies-Ex-post evaluation

• Type of interventions used
• Small and large infrastructure
• HRD
• Financial support for SMEs
• Implementation started in 2000
• PHARE and NRDF
• Incentives for Underdeveloped Areas (UA)
• Total investments (in 2003)63.4 MEURO
• 2077 projects processed
• 494 projects contracted

• Implemented in the period 2000-2003
• 446 projects
• 7.58 MEURO
• 1412 new companies in UA
• New Jobs created
• 2905 through projects
• 15932 in UA
• The unemployment rate decreased to 6.8

16
Thank you!

• Comments are welcome!
• adrnv_at_mail.dntcj.ro