SUSTAINABLE COUNTRYSIDE AND COMPETITIVENESS Prof. SZLÁVIK, JÁNOS – CSETE, MÁRIA SUMMARY Sustainability – which is a way of thinking, life, production and consumption – covers all dimensions of human existence, its relation to natural resources, the economy and society. Sustainability can be the solution – beside research and development processes – to global problems like globalising economy and market competition, global warming, poverty and famine. United Nations’ actions from Rio to Johannesburg and EU decisions seem to underpin this. Well-intentioned efforts up to the present have been made on global level with few results. There- fore it is necessary to implement sustainability on regional and local – sub- regional, company – level. Sustainability is getting into the centre of expectations and actions. It is very likely that only regions and sub-regions recognising the importance of sustainability in time, will be successful and competitive as a re- sult of this advantage. Settlements neglecting sustainability will not be able to keep their inhabitants, the countryside around them will not be able to produce enough products meeting food safety standards, and will exhaust its natural re- sources fairly quickly. The competitiveness of a region is largely determined by the state and development pattern of its rural areas and settlements. Therefore research has been focused on sustainable countryside and its important ele- ments, sustainable (liveable) settlements. During our investigations we imple- mented a new indicator and index number set that reflects all dimensions of sus- tainability, the present situation, and supports the bottom-up decision-making process of local governments and NGOs in order to promote development. These investigations highlighted the facts that potential competitiveness of a region can only be based on sustainable settlements, sub-regions and it is essential to elimi- nate deficiencies that restrain present and future development.
INTRODUCTION tematise the practical steps in Hungarian circumstances and the measurability of In recent decades both the terms implementation on the local level of sus competitiveness and sustainability have tainability. We assume that it is the eas become quite popular. We can find sev ier to make progress on local level, be eral interpretations of the two terms in cause it is very likely that in a region, the literature. They play key roles also in sub region or settlement local people are the two main strategies of the European well aware of the urgent need to accom Union. These circumstances motivated plish sustainability in their everyday, our paper, dealing with the investigation practical life and hereby improve com of the relationship between competitive petitiveness and set a solid base for the ness and sustainability, and trying to sys future. 20
Since the publication of Our Common "the most competitive and dynamic knowl Future by the Brundtland Commission in edge based economy in the world, capable 1997, the principle of sustainable devel of sustainable growth with more and better opment has been widely accepted. The jobs and greater social cohesion" (7). Amsterdam Treaty of EU declares the fol The Strategy of Sustainable Develop lowing principle: it is the aim of the Union ment was accepted in June, 2001 in Göte to foster economic and social development borg and concrete environmental aspects not only with regard to environmental pro have been incorporated into the Lisbon tection but also considering the principle of process dealing with employment, eco sustainable development (8,12). Despite nomic reform and social cohesion. of declared principles and goals included Annual Conference of the European in the treaty, sustainability is very rarely Economic and Social Committee and the implemented in practice on national and Presidents and Secretary generals of the regional level in the Union. According to National Economic and Social Commit EU evaluation, there is some progress on tees in 2004 was held in Luxemburg (1). local level. With EU accession on the 1 st They reaffirmed the importance of han of May 2004, it has become a Commu dling economic, social and environ nity requirement to implement sustain mental problems in a common, harmonic able development also in Hungary, and equal way. It is very important to where the countryside is especially rich keep in mind that the Lisbon Strategy is in natural values of European importance a comprehensive plan requiring inter (Nature 2000 network, protected areas, sector cooperation to harmonise various national parks, high quality soil). There policy fields, action plans and expected fore local and sub regional sustainability outcomes Our model introduced here is programs are extremely important. It is meant to satisfy these criteria. often a dilemma, how to reconcile sus The concept of sustainable develop tainability and competitiveness in local ment offers a long term vision for the EU development programs. Furthermore, the highlighting the necessity of a compre Lisbon Strategy plays a significant role in hensive resolution of environmental, eco the processes of the European Union. nomic and social problems. This has been These processes motivated this study confirmed by the findings of the half term dealing with the relationship between review of the Lisbon strategy. It has also competitiveness and sustainability. become popular to emphasize that all This investigation can be considered as stakeholders at all levels (global, regional a step toward practical realisation of sus and local) have to participate actively. We tainable development emphasising the im would like to analyse local implementa portance of local (sub regional, settlement) tion of competitiveness and sustainability level and its role in the competitiveness of in view of the EU strategies. the whole region and country. In our inves tigations we focused on factors other than THE INTERPRETATION OF just economic activity, which is not the SUSTAINABILITY AND only factor influencing competitiveness. COMPETITIVENESS AT THE LEVEL OF HUNGARIAN REGIONS SUSTAINABILITY AND COMPETI- TIVENESS IN THE EUROPEAN UNION Regional approach is a step toward lo cal implementation. Regional economic The Council of Europe set a new goal development has always been important for the EU in Lisbon in 2000: to become in the economic policy of the EU. Its ba Gazdálkodás, Vol. XLIX. Special edition No. 12 21 sic goal is to enable the cooperation be interpretations of the term. The defini tween regions and diminish regional dif tions of the EU and OECD mention sus ferences. This approach is likely to be tainable employment level and sustain come even more dominant. In our case we able income in the context of competi investigate national regions only and ig tiveness and sustainability. According to nore cross border regions. We assume the sixth Regional Report of the EU the however that sustainability is similarly standardised definition of competitive important for these regions too. Accord ness is the ability of companies, sectors, ing to the spatial statistical system regions and cross border regions to sus (NUTS) introduced by the Eurostat as tain relatively high income (and/or high early as in 1998, there are seven NUTS II economic growth) and employment level level statistical regions in Hungary. There while exposed to global competition. In are established regional development our opinion this definition is not com committees and offices for these regions, plete because it lacks the three dimen as representatives of the necessary new sions of sustainability as basic criteria. approach, while the traditional, county Sustainability is an aim, a basic condi based system still exists in parallel. Re tion of long term competitiveness and a gional institutions do not play an impor barrier at the same time. tant role at present, because they cannot The pyramid model (Lengyel I., function the way they are supposed to. 2000) , representing the competitiveness The situation is the result of new regional of regions, areas and cities is based on the tasks and the way they have been estab above described definition: the main goal lished. The regions have been established on the top of the pyramid represents the by joining areas of very different envi improvement of living standard and wel ronmental and economic characteristics fare of citizens. On the level below are the and levels of development. For example, basic categories of competitiveness (in the Central Region of Hungary consists of come, productivity of workforce, em the following areas with very diverse ployment) based on fundamental factors functions, problems and opportunities: the of direct influence (e.g. R+D, infrastruc capital, its agglomeration and an agricul ture, foreign investment, SMEs, institu tural area, the so called “golden triangle”, tional and social capital). Finally, at the Cegléd Nagykırös Abony. It is especially base of pyramid we find the so called ac critical to integrate the capital into the re complishment factors, which describe the gion, even though she influences not just social and economic conditions in the Pest County but several other counties. background of the region. Of the eight ac Another critical problem is for example complishment factors one is the quality of that the lake Balaton and surrounding ar the environment, which is one of the tree eas is not a coherent region. Taking all dimensions or pillars of sustainability. these problems into consideration, it is The balance of accomplishment assess hardly surprising that the rationalisation ment is shifted too much in favour of so of this system, the clarification and mod cial and economic factors. In our opinion ernisation of functions of different territo the accomplishment of sustainability is rial components is almost continuously on based on the harmony of the three dimen the agenda. sions, economy, society and environment, It is not easy to investigate competi in equal consideration. This is also essen tiveness either at micro or at macro tial in guaranteeing the long term com level, because there are several different petitiveness of regions, areas and cities. 22
Figure 1
Competitiveness of regions, areas and cities
Source: Lengyel I., 2000 With reference to the dimensions of points by mapping competitiveness and sustainability, economic factors are usu supporting long term sustainability un ally represented by comprehensive indi der favourable conditions. ces, while environmental characteristics are mostly represented by several differ SUSTAINABLE COUNTRYSIDE AND ent indicators. This makes their evalua COMPETITIVENESS tion difficult. The situation is similar in the case of social factors, which are It is very likely that regionalism will qualitative characteristics of the popula come to the forefront as a result of na tion, but detailed and statistically good tional and EU efforts to alleviate regional quality social indicators are usually plen differences. Whatever solution will be tiful. The quality of data and methods of chosen, the location of rural areas will calculation used influence the feasibility have to be taken into consideration, as of regional investigations, which are es their development level and potential sential in measuring competitiveness. highly influences regional development Collection of data samples is becoming and potential competitiveness of regions. increasingly popular nowadays (9). To Worsening living conditions in rural areas decrease bias, it is useful to consider set might threaten the economic development tlements as units. The following indica of some regions or the whole country or tor system based on this approach satis even national identity. Welfare and endur fies modern sustainability requirements ing public safety is essential to guarantee and can be used as a tool to find devel an attractive way of life in the countryside opment opportunities and breakout in harmony with European Union at Gazdálkodás, Vol. XLIX. Special edition No. 12 23 tempts to retain the population at their ru dation will eventually make human habi ral residence. If rural areas are unable to tation impossible. perform all their functions (economic, Natural environment affects the de productive, ecological, social and cul velopment of a whole region, but as an tural) satisfactorily, this can undermine interaction developed regions might sup the socio economic base of the region or port rural areas. There is no developed, of the whole country. competitive region without sustainable To sustain innovation and develop rural areas; therefore developed areas ment in a culturally degraded landscape, a should in return contribute in creating desolated or overgrown area is possible and maintaining vital rural areas. only if the atmosphere is still free of pol When comparing EU and Hungarian lution and food and drinking water is im data since the 1990s, there are some sub ported from other regions (see Silicon stantial differences (Table 1). Valley). However, environmental degra Table 1
Comparison of EU and Hungarian territory data EU-15 Hungary Territory (1000 km 2) 3231 93 Population (1000) 372 000 10 135 Population density (person / km 2) 115,1 108,9 Urban areas (%) 15,6 3,9 Countryside areas (%) 37,4 34,6 Rural areas (%) 47,0 61,5 Source : Csete L. – Láng I., 2004 We can see from Table 1 that there The City Construction and Planning are big differences in the level of Institution has prepared a study for the urbanisation between Hungary and the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural De EU, even though several settlements velopment that showed that 90 (60%) out have received the title of town every of 150 statistical sub regions may be year in the past decades. The ratio of considered as socio economically under urban areas in the EU is four times as developed. The Institution suggested im much as in Hungary. Actually, the plementing a rural development program number of middle sized towns is very in 67 sub regions. These data indicate low in this country. The countryside and that rural development is especially im rural areas constitute exactly 96% of the portant in Hungary and concentrations of whole territory of Hungary. Differences underdeveloped areas within a region in population density do not seem to be place a potential barrier for the develop high according to Table 1; there are ment of the whole region. however large variations within the country. One third of the population SUSTAINABLE COUNTRYSIDE AND lives in Budapest and surrounding SETTLEMENT settlements where the population density is quite high, while the density is very Thus the role of rural area and set low in some other regions of the country. tlement development in improving re 24 gional and national competitiveness is The level of knowledge and educa particularly important in Hungary, be tion is improving cause of the high proportion of rural ar Health, cultural and information eas compared with the EU. Hopefully ru needs of local people can be met ral areas satisfying sustainability criteria Our investigations so far have been not only influence the region positively based on two approaches: the above de as a whole but also generate income by scribed sustainable countryside concept producing products for consumers within and the Bellagio principles (11). and outside of the region and can con Hungarian Central Statistical Office tribute to regional competitiveness in has applied a complex index number this way. It can be simply stated that a consisted of 19 indicators to measure the product is competitive if it can be sold, development level of settlements since an enterprise is competitive if it can sur 1999. It would be necessary to modify vive on the open market or even improve this system to include also sustainability its trading position and a settlement is aspects. The criteria system, our indica competitive if it is habitable. tors and index numbers satisfying the Of course, the meaning of competi above mentioned criteria has to fit also tiveness changes all the time but pre the following conditions: sumably activities and areas producing It has to reflect local sustainability high quality goods with higher effective criteria ness and using less resources will remain It has to be useful for development competitive on the long run. Sustainable planning of the settlements rural development could achieve this end. Indicators have to be available or de Sustainability is a new way of think ducible from available databases ing, of life and of economic activity, a Indicators have to be comparable with basically new dimension to the people indicators of other research nature relationship. The role of sustain Considering these criteria we man able countryside and settlement is even aged to create an index number and indi clearer if we consider the situation of cator system that proved capable of Hungarian countryside. We can conclude measuring sustainability and its changes, the simple but important fact that a rural preferable improvements and enabled the area or settlement is sustainable if it is comparison of settlements. The subject habitable. The determining characteris of our investigation is a special area, in tics of a habitable settlement are as fol cluding six settlements by Lake Tisza: lows (Csete L. – Láng I., 3) : Poroszló, Újlırincfalva, Sarud, Tisza Living conditions are preferable, nána, Kisköre and Pély . These settle people like to live in the settlement ments are seriously disadvantaged but The settlement is financially sustain are situated in a valuable holiday area. able, that is there are no liquidity prob Another special condition is that parts of lems and it has the necessary resources this region belong to two statistical re to achieve strategic objectives gions, four counties and five sub The income level is high enough to regions. eliminate differences between urban and The following elements have been rural income investigated and analysed at settlements Agricultural production and land use level according to indicators of the three is sustainable dimensions of sustainability. Gazdálkodás, Vol. XLIX. Special edition No. 12 25
1. Natural resources, state of natural formation and indicator system measur environment and landscape. ing sustainability proved appropriate. 2. Social development of the settle The sources of information were diverse ment, living conditions, social status, ranging from statistical database, expert culture, traditions. consultations, on site visits to interviews. 3. Economic and infra structural devel We gained on average 98 index numbers opment, organisational and institutional or indicators for all settlements. We background. could draw some general conclusions by Main elements of the three groups comparing and analysing settlement are listed in Table 2. The hypothetic in data. Table 2
Simplified structure of sustainability indicator system
I. State of the environment, natural resources and landscape
1. Natural values, sights, parks, arboretums, values of built environment, etc. 2. Characteristics of biodiversity 3. Natural resources utilised to satisfy human needs 4. Hydrography, drinking water supply 5. Characteristics of agricultural areas 6. Characteristics of weather 7. General characterisation of environment II. Living conditions, culture, traditions
1. Characteristics of the population 2. Characteristics of families 3. State of Roma population 4. Conditions of living on the settlement 5. Culture, traditions III. State of infrastructure and economy on the settlement
1. Financial sustainability of local government 2. State of enterprises 3. Level of self sufficiency of the settlement 4. Infra structure Source : Szlávik J. – Csete M., 2004 The systematised data and informa valuable holiday area) would be a very tion was additional, new information for long process. In addition to support from local governments proved useful for fu the society there is also a need for own ture decision making. Without any sup initiatives, self-organisation and self- port from the society, the resolution of support within the settlements. The “Set contradictions (these settlements are se tlements mirrors” investigated serve as riously disadvantaged but situated in an an aid for these initiatives. 26
The realistic base of sustainable of potential for successful tendering, the countryside and settlements could be the lack of successful handling of the Roma sustainable management of natural re issue and the lack of an integrated pro sources, the improvement of habatility, gram for sustainable management of natu tourism especially health tourism and ral resources. Solving or softening these sustainable agricultural production. problems would mean a progress toward However, for the sake of development competitiveness and would contribute to it is essential to eliminate deficiencies , the rise of the region in harmony with the namely the lack of cooperation, the lack modern concept of sustainability .
REFERENCES (1) Annual Conference of the European Economic and Social Committee and the Presidents and Secretaries general of the National Economic and Social Committees, Luxemburg, 2004 – (2) Botos J. (2000): Versenyképesség elemzés: fogalmi körüljárás, hazai esélyek. In: Farkas B. – Lengyel I. (szerk.): Versenyképesség – regionális ver senyképesség. SZTE Gazdaságtudományi Kar Közleményei, JATEPress, Szeged, 218 234. pp. – (3) Csete L. – Láng I. (2004): A fenntartható agrárgazdaság és vidékfejlesz tés. MTA Társadalomkutató Központ, Budapest – (4) Faluvégi A. (2000): Az elmara dott, illetve az országos átlagot meghaladó munkanélküliséggel sújtott települések listá jának felülvizsgálata. Területi Statisztika, KSH, Budapest – (5) Hungary: Basic features and indicators of social, environmental and economic changes and planning for sustainability, Hungarian Commission on Sustainable Development National information to the World Summit on Sustainable Development, Johannesburg, 2002. – (6) Lengyel I. (2000): A regionális versenyképességrıl. Közgazdasági Szemle, XLVII. évf., dec., 962 987. pp. – (7) Nemzetközi együttmőködés a fenntartható fejlıdés jegyé ben és az Európai Unió Fenntartható Fejlıdési Stratégiája. Fenntartható Fejlıdés Bizott ság, Budapest, 2002. – (8) Our Common Future. Oxford New York Oxford University Press, 1987 – (9) Pukli P. (2000): A gazdaságstatisztika regionális mutatószámai. In: Farkas B. – Lengyel I. (szerk.): Versenyképesség – regionális versenyképesség. SZTE Gazdaságtudományi Kar Közleményei, JATEPress, Szeged, 235 244. pp. – (10) Szlávik J. – Csete M. (2004): A fenntarthatóság érvényre juttatása és mérhetısége települési – kistérségi szinten. Gazdálkodás, XLVIII. évf. 4. szám – (11) Szlávik J. (2005): Fenn tartható környezet és erıforrás gazdálkodás. KJK Kerszöv, Budapest – (12) Treaty of Amsterdam Official Publications of the European Communities, Luxemburg, 1997. In: Az Európai Unió környezetvédelmi szabályozása. Bándi Gyula, KJK Kerszöv, 2001 ADDRESS: Dr. Szlávik János egyetemi tanár, tanszékvezetı Budapesti Mőszaki és Gazdaságtudományi Egyetem Gazdaság és Társadalomtudományi Kar Környezetgazdaságtan Tanszék 1111 Budapest, Sztoczek u. 2. IV. em. Tel: 463 1941, Fax: 463 1149 E mail: [email protected] Gazdálkodás, Vol. XLIX. Special edition No. 12 27
Csete Mária PhD hallgató Budapesti Mőszaki és Gazdaságtudományi Egyetem Gazdaság és Társadalomtudományi Kar Környezetgazdaságtan Tanszék 1111 Budapest, Sztoczek u. 2. IV. em. Tel: 463 1941, Fax: 463 1149 E mail: [email protected]