Urgent issues of regional policy in Latvia Vladislavs Bedinovs Ministry of Regional Development and

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Urgent issues of regional policy in
Latvia Vladislavs BedinovsMinistry of
Regional Development and Local Governments of
Latvia
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Regional reform objective

• regulate democratic, legal, effective,
  transparent activity of regional governments,
  promote balanced development of the state
  territory

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Regional reform
Law on administrative territorial reform defines
that the establishment of regional municipalities
is defined by a special law

• Current situation
• Ineffective coordination of activities at
  regional level among territorial units of central
  public administration bodies, planning regions,
  districts (rajoni) and local municipalities.
• Different service-delivery territories of central
  public administration bodies
• The size and the number of inhabitants of the
  district territory does not allow district
  municipalities to implement functions inherent to
  regional level
• The status of the Planning region council, as
  well as its limited competence does not allow it
  to effectively implement the functions of a
  regional municipality

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The establishment of regional municipalities will
allow

• create conditions for balanced, mutually
  reinforce economic development of the whole
  territory of Latvia
• promote polycentric development in the regions
• ensure the development of each region considering
  their strengths and opportunities
• use effective instruments, according to each
  region priorities
• apply effective and suitable to every region
  development instruments (investments, programmes
  to specially assisted territories etc.)

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Regional development centres

• The low of Regional municipalities will define
  the development centres of the region and state
  the requirements for state and municipal services
  in those centres
• We can define
• centres of state significance
• centres of regional significance
• centres of local significance

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Formation of the competency of regional
municipality(reorganization of the districts
municipalities and planning regions)
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Functions of the regional municipality

• Regional development planning and implementation
  of the plans
• Territorial Planning in the region
• Organization of the public transport services in
  the region
• Provision of the civil defence arrangements
• Organization of the culture and sport events in
  the region and promotion of the business
  activities and tourism
• Social care (old peoples homes, child care
  centres ect.), promotion of the health care
  availability and management of the hospitals in
  the regional municipality
• Development, methodological management and
  coordination of the education system (vocational,
  adult, primary and secondary education)
• Development planning, methodological management
  and coordination of the regional information
  communication technologies infrastructure
• Coordination of the environment protection and
  waste management development issues

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Structure of the regional municipality
Council of the region
Chairman of the region
Commission for Public administration and
municipality cooperation

Consulting council (Co-operation with
entrepreneur, NGO, inhabitants in region etc.)
Central administration of the region
(office/bureau)
Agency for development, other institutions
Local government development center
Territorial division administration of the
district
..
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Administrative territorial reform

• Amendments of Law on administrative-territorial
  reform approved by Saeima
• Project of creation of amalgamated municipalities
  (novadi) to be produced until 1 July of 2006
• Creation of amalgamated municipalities until 1
  january 2009

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Tasks of National Development Plan

• ? to determine mid-term strategic development
  goals for development of the state and it,s
  territories
• ? to produce action directions and priorities of
  promotion of sustainable and balanced
  social-economic development
• ? to create single framework for planning of
  public investments, including EU financial
  support and private investments

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Nacional Development Plan - process
Discussion about SWOT analysis and priorities of
state is begun with a group of entrepreneurs 30
September conference of intelligentsia about
- model of state growth - Lisbon strategy
- NDP 12. October NDP coordination group
approved - SWOT analysis - strategic goals
and action directions
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Nacional Development Plan - process
During October producing of monitoring and
evaluation system and operational part of NDP is
finalized Initial evaluation (ex-ante) of
produced work is done Beginning of December
examination and approval of first draft of NDP
at Lead group and NRDC From January 2006 until
March 2006 public discussion will be
organized From March 2006 until May 2006 NDP
final version End of May 2006 examination and
approval of NDP in order to progress for
approval by Cabinet of Ministers
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National Spatial Plan
National Spatial Plan is a territorial plan of
the state and it defines interests of state and
requirements as regards use and development of
territory of the state. National Spatial Plan
is a compilation of the documents and consists
of 1) spatial development perspective of Latvia
for next twenty years 2) binding regulations of
National Spatial Plan 3) guidelines of National
Spatial Plan
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National Spatial Plan next steps
Evaluation of ESPON projects results Evaluation
of development programmes and spatial plans of
the regions, districts and cities of state
significance Evaluation of spatial effects of
sectoral policies Evaluation of effectiveness of
policy of particularly supported
regions Territorial analysis of human
resources, tendencies and prognosis until 2020
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Proposed planning levels and levels of delivery
of services
Planning levels according to existing
legislation 1) National - National Spatial
plan, National development Plan, sectoral
programmes 2) Regional - Regional Spatial Plan
and development programme 3) Local territorial
plan Territorial plan and development
programme, detailed plan Levels of delivery of
services for household 1) Capital of the state
(Riga) 2) National level centres (Liepaja,
Jelgava, Daugavpils, etc) 3) Regional level
centres (Dobele, Gulbene, Ludza, etc) 4) Local
centres ( centres of local municipalities
towns, villages) 5) Inner centres of local
municipalities (hamlets, groups of farmsteads)
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Spheres of services
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Services proposed at various levels of settlement
structure
Inner centre level childcare, primary and
secondary education, police representative,
post, public transport, housing, library, retail
of daily goods, Internet, open-air sport
buildings, recreation centre, family doctor,
social worker, amateur collectives. Local centre
level childcare, primary and secondary
education,education of interests police
representative, post, public transport, housing,
pharmacy, library, museum, retail of daily and
specific goods, Internet, open-air sport
buildings and sport halls, recreation centre,
social care services, family doctors, amateur
collectives, consultant of entrepreneurship. Regi
onal centre level - administrative courts, city
court, advocats, gymnasiums, vocational schools,
doctors of various specialities, supermarkets,
factories and plants, state institutions, centre
of support of entrepreneurship, extensions of
universities National centre level
universities, ports, airports, road and railway
nodes, full-scale medical services, professional
theatres, galleries, retail centres,
supermarkets, concert halls, multifunctional
sport halls. Capital of the state Parliament,
Government, ministries, Supreme Court,
Constitutional court, international transport
node, National library.
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National Spatial Plan challenges and issues
To define vision of spatial development for
Latvia until 2020 How to balance availability of
services from settlement structure,s point of
view, taking into account decisions at planning
levels? Minimum of services is needed? Amount
of needed services how to define it at
different levels? How to determine service
delivery centres during the process of creation
of new municipalities (novadi) ? Role of
accessibility?
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Thank You!