Development study of the region Orava M.E.S.A. 10, Bratislava, December 2000 © M.E.S.A. 10 – Center for Economic and Social Analyses, 2000 Hviezdoslavovo nám. 17, 811 02 Bratislava tel.: 07-544 35 328, +421-7-544 34 009 fax: 07-544 32 189 e-mail:[email protected] Internet: www.mesa10.sk The following participated in the study elaboration: Marek Jakoby, M.E.S.A.10 Miroslav Kňažko, M.E.S.A. 10 Viliam Pätoprstý, M.E.S.A.10 Oľga Reptová, M.E.S.A.10 Martin Valentovič, M.E.S.A.10 We acknowledge the following for assistance in elaboration of the study and useful advices and comments: Representatives of state administration of the respective districts – all the heads of District Offices and chairpersons of District Labor Offices Mayors of cities and villages of the region Representatives of the third sector at the region Representatives of entrepreneurs of the region Elaboration of the study was possible thanks to a kind support of: U.S.A. – through Small Grant Program administrated by the U.S. Embassy in Slovakia 2 TABLE OF CONTENTS A. SOCIO-ECONOMIC ANALYSIS OF THE ORAVA REGION AND ITS ADAPTATION POTENTIAL 5 1. BASIC CHARACTERISTICS OF THE REGION 5 1.1 Position of the region within proposed VÚC 5 1.2. Characteristics of Orava region 7 2. DEMOGRAPHIC POTENTIAL 9 2.1. Migration, gender and age structure of population 9 2.2. Ethnic structure of population 11 2.3. Education structure of population 11 2.4. Settlement structure 12 2.5. Conclusion 12 3. LABOR MARKET 13 3.1 Employed and average monthly wage 13 3.2 Unemployment 14 3.3. Conclusion 16 4. ECONOMIC ACTIVITIES 17 4.1. Private enterprise 17 4.2. Sources of raw materials 18 4.3. Industry and construction 19 District of Námestovo 20 District of Tvrdošín 20 District of Dolný Kubín 20 4.4. Agriculture 21 4.5 Forestry 22 4.6 Trade 23 4.7 Tourism and services 23 4.7.1 District of Námestovo 24 4.7.2 District of Tvrdošín 25 4.7.3. District of Dolný Kubín 25 4.8 Conclusion 26 5. INFRASTRUCTURE 27 5.1 Transportation 27 5.2 Communications 27 5.3 Technical infrastructure 27 5.4. Conclusion 27 6. DEVELOPMENT OF THE HUMAN DEVELOPMENT AREAS 28 6.1 Housing 28 6.2. Health care 28 6.3. Social care 28 6.4. Education 29 6.5. Culture 29 6.6. Physical education and sport activities 29 6.7. Conclusion 29 7. NATURAL ENVIRONMENT PROTECTION 30 3 B. PROPOSALS 31 8. PRIORITIES 31 8. 1 DEVELOPMENT OF INFRASTRUCTURE 31 8.2 DEVELOPMENT OF SMALL AND MEDIUM ENTERPRISE 33 8.3 TOURISM 37 8.4 INDUSTRY 40 8.5 CROSS BORDER COOPERATION 43 Map 1: Position of Orava region (shaded area) within Slovak Republic Source: M.E.S.A.10 4 A. SOCIO-ECONOMIC ANALYSIS OF THE ORAVA REGION AND ITS ADAPTATION POTENTIAL. 1. Basic characteristics of the region 1.1 Position of the region within proposed VÚC In terms of prepared public administration reform, it might be quite interesting to investigate the position of the region in the realm of the higher territorial and administrative unit (VÚC) into which it should, according to proposed concept of reform, belong. Therefore we dedicated the following section to this issue. According to proposed Concept of Public Administration Reform, the examined region should belong to Liptovsko-Oravsko-Turčianskeho higher territorial and administrative unit (LOT VÚC) located in the north of Slovakia. By its area of 4,757 km2 it is the fifth largest VÚC. Mountainous relief prevails in the landscape when the highest mountains of Slovakia can be found in the region - Tatry (eastern part of VÚC), Nízke Tatry and Veľká Fatra (southern part of VÚC), Malá Fatra (western part of VÚC) and Oravské Beskydy (northern part of VÚC). The VÚC contains also three large valleys - Turčianska (southern part of VÚC), Liptovská (eastern part of VÚC) and Oravská (northern part of VÚC). Three important rivers run through the VÚC as well - Váh, Turiec and Orava. The LOT VÚC is composed of seven districts – Martin, Liptovský Mikuláš, Ružomberok, Turčianske Teplice, Dolný Kubín, Námestovo and Tvrdošín. The last three form the Orava region. It is located in the northern part of the LOT VÚC and fills almost 41% of its total area. By it number of inhabitants of 376,646 (almost 7% of the population of Slovakia), the LOT VÚC belongs to under average VÚCs occupying the eighth place in the Slovak rank. The population of the Orava region creates almost a third of entire LOT VÚC. With regard to density of population, the LOT VÚC with its 79.2 inhabitants per km2 is one of the least densely populated regions of Slovakia, while 48% of its population lives in rural settlements; scattered settlement mainly in the Orava region***. Martin is the largest city of the LOT VÚC (61,025). Other relevant cities are: Liptovský Mikuláš (33,819) and Ružomberok (31,046). Dolný Kubín (20,004)* is the center of the Orava region. In comparison to that of the SR, the age structure of population of the LOT VÚC is more favorable mainly in terms of pre-productive age group quoting 26.4% share of population (the figure for the SR is 20.43%) and post-productive age group (16.1% of the LOT VÚC vs. 17.79% of the SR). The age structure of the Orava region is even more positive than the one of the LOT VÚC, when only 26.71% of population belongs to pre-productive age group, 63.2% productive age group (the LOT VÚC – 57.5%) and only 10.09% of population belongs to post-productive age group*. Currently, the LOT VÚC did not avoid a loss of population due to mechanic migration, when the increase of population due to mechanic migration per 1,000 inhabitants achieved –0.39 in 1999 (the third worse figure in Slovakia). The Orava region has even higher decrease of population (-0.79). At the same time, the figure of overall increase of population due to mechanic migration per 1,000 people for entire Slovakia is +0,27**. As for ethnic composition, the VÚC as well as the Orava region are absolutely dominated by the Slovaks. The share of Slovak nationality in entire population is the third highest in Slovakia quoting 97.76%. In the Orava region, Slovak nationality is represented by a 99.1% share while the average for entire Slovak Republic is only 85.62%***. The education structure of population of the Orava region as compared to the LOT VÚC is less favorable in terms of the ratio of lower educated population to higher educated population (Table 1). In terms of Slovakia, however, the LOT VÚC is the fifth as for the share of university 5 educated population when only traditional university centers and economically strong regions are before it***. Table 1 Education structure of population of the LOT VÚC and the Orava region Education Liptovsko-Oravsko-Turčiansky VÚC Orava region Grade school 27.83% 29.1% Apprentice 19.59% 18.8% Secondary vocational 2.54% 1.5% Secondary general ending with 2.87% 2.4% state exam Secondary vocational ending 15.11% 13.5% with state exam University 5.07% 3.6% Source: Regióny Slovenska (MESA10) Economic indices for the LOT VÚC achieve prevailingly the figures around the average for the Slovak Republic (excluding Bratislava). While in terms of production per capita, it quotes the forth place in the SR (including Bratislava) – SKK 67,000 per capita, in terms of investments per capita it is the seventh ranked with SKK 21,000 per capita*. The number of profitable organizations per 1,000 inhabitants in productive age is an indicator of economic activity in the region as well. As for the LOT VÚC it is 12.7 (1998), while for the Orava region only 9.8 (1999). For entire Slovakia, it is 17.5 profitable organizations per 1,000 inhabitants in productive age (1999). With regard to the number of physical entities per 1,000 inhabitants in productive age, the Orava region has accomplished in 1999 a fairly positive figure of 88.1 entities per 1,000 inhabitants in productive age (the figure for Slovakia is 88.8 entities). As for the LOT VÚC, this indicator quoted 79.1 physical entities per 1,000 inhabitants in productive age in 1998**. Regarding tax issues, the share of the Orava region in collection of direct and indirect taxes in the LOT VÚC did not exceed 5% in 1996-1999 (excluding the effect of collections of taxes and customs at the costumes office in District of Tvrdošín, since these come not exclusively from activities performed in the Orava region) and any trends of development of this share are hard to identify at all. In 1999, the Orava region accounted for 10% of the VÚC collection of corporate income tax and 22% of the VÚC collection of personal income tax. First, this indicates fairly low economic power of the Orava region even within the LOT VÚC, when solely the district of Dolný Kubín can be more or less measured with some stronger districts such as Martin, Liptovský Mikuláš and Ružomberok. Second, high returns of VAT, which lower overall collection of all taxes of the Orava region as far as to negative values, demonstrate that commodities produced at the region are in high portion exported and consumed in other regions**. The average monthly wage in the LOT VÚC in 1998 was SKK 8,635, when the Orava region has continuously reported a little bit lower figures (SKK 8,346 in 1998) than the VÚC.