The Strategy of Economic Development of the Romanian – Ukrainian Trans-Border Region (Maramureş, Satu Mare, Zakarpatia and Ivano-Frankovsk)
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THE STRATEGY OF ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT OF THE ROMANIAN – UKRAINIAN TRANS-BORDER REGION (MARAMUREŞ, SATU MARE, ZAKARPATIA AND IVANO-FRANKOVSK) - SUPPORT ACTIONS - - STRATEGIC DIRECTIONS - - 2008 - Baia Mare, Maramures County, Romania 1 The Strategy Throughout the stages of drawing up the strategic directions and issuing the herein document, the aim has been to draw up some directions meant to support the actions undertaken for the purpose of increasing the economical competitiveness in the regions as well as to strengthen the trans-border economical cooperation. In order for this regions to develop from the economical point of view, the entities involved in drawing up the herein document decided that the objectives must be set and implemented in a harmonized manner, together with and as per the regional development strategies and, at the same time, they must rest within the area of control and influence of the involved players. This is the reason why the herein document proposes only strategic directions for development, without covering the programming and planning stages. Thus, an action-orientated strategy has been issued that, besides identifying the objectives and the results, offers a set of exemplifying actions that can be materialized in possible projects. The System of Objectives The vision of the strategy has been defined starting from the territorial analysis and from the SWOT matrix issued, as follows: „To support the economical development and the improving of the business environment in the Romanian – Ukrainian Trans-border Region (Maramureş, Satu Mare, Zakarpatska and Ivano-Frankovsk), starting from the analysis of the present territorial situation and relying on the institutional cooperation of the relevant players at local level.” The general objective : “To increase the economic competitiveness in the Romanian – Ukrainian Trans-border Region (Maramureş, Satu Mare, Zakarpatska and Ivano-Frankovsk)” The analysis of the present territorial situation underlines the issues that the business environment in the Region is facing. The strategy does not consider elements from the external action environment of the involved players. Thus, the approach considers some support actions for the business environment. Specific objectives: 1. To reduce the financial and technological deficiencies; 2. To identify and correlate the deficiencies on the labour market; 3. To strengthen the exchange of business information; 4. To increase the level of the managerial and organizational culture. The first specific objective of the strategy aims at approaching one of the major problems of the business environment in the region that affects competitiveness, namely the reduced technological level in the companies. Even if one of the causes of the technological deficiencies is the lack of financing or the reduced accessibility to it, both aspects have been analysed and formulated within the same objective because of the fact that the poor financing affects not only the technological component but also the development of other sectors (human resources, organizational, financial, promotion etc.). The second objective considers the human resources component. The analysis made revealed a high degree of occupation in agriculture, in parallel with a development of the rural environment almost exclusively from agricultural activities. The decreased level of entrepreneurship, especially marked by the reduced number of SME-s in the Region, the ageing of the rural population, the decreased level of regional mobility doubled by a labour force migration outside the region and the deficiencies in the human resources management, affect the economical development. The third objective started from the territorial analysis in order to approach the communication and image issues that the economical environment is facing. Given the absence of some relevant studies at regional level, European data and statistics have been used with the purpose of substantiating the conclusions. The following factors hamper the increase of the economical competitiveness: the insufficient knowledge of the two economical environments, the existence of an ungrounded “mythology” concerning the two economical environments, the reduced accessibility to relevant business information, the reduced 2 level of the business environment visibility within and outside the Region, as well as the existence of the communication barriers. The fourth specific objective aims at approaching a less palpable and countable set of issues related to the business environment. The existence of some differences in the managerial and organizational cultures between the business environment in the Region and the one, generically named, “European”, are obvious but difficult to define. However, it is obvious that they aim at affecting the economical competitiveness. They are nothing but those elements which, practically speaking, either support or hamper the reaching of the other three objectives and, implicitly, of the general objective. The following elements have been thus identified: opposition to change, poor confidence in the business relationships, deficiencies in the organizational management, a reduced degree of associative spirit or a mentality in which “owner” (entrepreneur) = manager. The main purpose of setting the objectives is that of offering directions for approaching the most important issues identified in the Region business environment, exemplifying with actions that once transferred into practice should provide both sustainability of the long and average term developments and implementation of the relevant partnerships. The obtaining of some results supports reaching each separate specific objective: Specific objectives: 1. To reduce the technological and financial deficiencies Results: - Improving the capacity to access financing sources; - Increasing the technological level in certain production sectors; - Stimulating the increase of the innovation level. 2. To identify and correlate the deficiencies on the labour force market Results: - Reducing the migration of labour force outside the Region; - Increasing the labour force mobility inside the Region; - Making more efficient programs for labour force steadiness; - Attracting and keeping the young persons in the rural areas. 3. To intensify the exchange of business information Results: - Improving the image of the business environment inside and outside the Region; - Facilitating the access to relevant business information; - Increasing the two economic and business environments’ visibility; - Reducing the communication barriers (the language). 4. To increase the level of managerial and organizational culture Results: - Accepting the new / the change at organizational level; - Improving the image of manager’s “profession”; - Increasing the confidence in the business relationships; - Improving the organizational management; - Stimulating the associative spirit. 3 VIZIUNE To support the actions of economical development and the improving of the business environment in the Romania – Ukraine Trans- border Region (Maramureş, Satu Mare, Zakarpatska and Ivano-Frankivska), starting from the analysis of the present situation and relying on the institutional cooperation of the relevant players at local level. OBIECTIVUL GENERAL To increase the economic competitiveness in the Romania – Ukraine Trans-border Region (Maramureş, Satu Mare, Zakarpatska and Ivano-Frankivska)” Specific Objective Specific Objective Specific Objective Specific Objective 1. To reduce the 2. To identify and correlate 3. To intensify the exchange 4. To increase the level of technological and financial the deficiencies on the labor of business information managerial and deficiencies force market organizational culture Results: Results: Results: Results: - Improving the capacity to - Reducing the migration of - Improving the image of the - Accepting the new / the access financing sources; labor force outside the business environment inside change at organizational - Increasing the Region; and outside the Region; level; technological level in the - Increasing the labor force - Facilitating the access to - Improving the image of production units; mobility inside the Region; relevant business manager’s “profession”; - Stimulating the increase of - Making more efficient information; - Increasing the confidence the innovation level. programs for labour force - Increasing the two in the business relationships; steadiness; economic and business - Improving the - Attracting and keeping the environments’ visibility; organizational young persons in the rural - Reducing the management; areas. communication barriers (the - Stimulating the associative language). spirit. 4 The Methodology of Issuing the Strategy The starting point for issuing the methodology, the instruments and the working frame for the herein strategy has been the need to involve in the process the local players belonging to three main environments: economic, administrative and academic. The need to get information, analyses and perspectives from as many sources as possible was even bigger as the target was to issue an instrument with practical applicability, for the benefit of the entities involved as actions promoters. At the same time, the herein document does not include the planning and programming stages, but only the strategic directions. These have been detailed with types of exemplifying actions, with risk and stakeholders analyses so that it could offer a potential portfolio of projects. The involvement of