|
Motto: To be unable to act together for the common good because there is virtually no trust or sense of obligation to anyone is responsible for the impoverishment of a region, rather than the lack of resources or economic opportunity. Abstract: What rural development means in Romania? Which dilemmas appear in conception, evaluation, implementation and monitoring of rural development projects in pre-accession period? From what sort of factors depends the success of SAPARD in Romania? What would be necessary to change and what terms should be respected for rural development? This work is trying to give answers to some of the questions concerning the present situation of the Romanian countryside and highlights the dilemmas concerning the rural development on short and long terms.It is known that the annual budget of SAPARD's union projects in Romania for the period of 2000-2006 is of 150,636 million EURO. However, this amount will be available as non-refundable support of the European Union for rural development only in case of developed projects, eligible projects and mutual financing possibilities. Those responsible for promoting the rural development should clear out first some problems such as: - Are the public central administration and the regional, county authorities and local administrations ready to promote the rural development? - Do we have, in the rural area, local civil organisations capable of taking part in conceiving and implementing rural development projects in Romania? - What institutional developments are to be done at the level of groups and organisations in the field of agricultural and rural development, in order to conceive and implement projects of development? - Will the entrepreneurs benefit by SAPARD's support, by having viable projects and funds for mutual financing? We can not give clear answers to these questions: the concrete situation differs from one village to another and from one person to another. We will suggest instead the underlining of general dilemmas, which shows up in the context of the difficult rural development in Romania. 1. Details Regarding the Terms Involved 1.1 Defining the Rural Area In Romania the rural space gathers up 2685 villages with self-administration, so the concept of "rural" does not include the cities or the villages, which belong to the city halls.The communes gather up several villages, on an average of 5. The communes' authorities are direct partners with the regional authorities in conceiving the rural politics. Their number is very large (ex. 482 in the southern region). The concept of micro-regions (4th NUTS level) is not generally used in Romania. In Romania there are 67 towns with a population under 10000 inhabitants and 147 towns with a population between 10000-50000 souls, the majority presenting rural traits. The Romanian rural area (the total area of all the communes) exceeds 89% of the territory of the country and 10.15 millions people live here, about 45% of the whole population. The average density of the population in the countryside is 48 people/sq. km. The rural area of Romania is much greater than other Eastern and Central European countries. The main objections upon defining the term of "rural" may be: - The development of rural areas cannot be possible without considering the inter-dependence between the cities and communes belonging to the same area. - There is no certain criterion for defining rural areas such as the density of the population: limitation of 150 inhabitants/sq. km in the OECD or 100 inhabitants/sq. km EU or 120 inhabitants/sq. km proposal in Hungary. - It does not exist published statistical evidence at the level of communes except some of the general census dates. 1.2. Confusions between Growth and Development - Growth is about the extension of economical activities in the territory ( ex. the growth of the number of jobs, of the incomes, of the population etc.). Generally, the growth is stimulated by the budget and it represents the expansion of economical activities on short terms (J.N. Reid, D.W. Sears, 1995). - Development means a lasting growth of the productivity the people and institutions which leads usually to higher incomes on individuals. Development can be associated with growth, but there is no direct interdependence between them. The projects of rural development should focus on changing the essential conditions in long term. The investments should focus on the authorities, at physical and human infrastructure, and not only at the growth of the available resources on short term. 1.3 What Type of Strategy of Rural Development Should Be Applied? The concept of strategy may be understood as an ensemble of actions, techniques and tactics, which are directed activities correspondingly on achieving the established aims on long term, which promotes the rural development.- There are rural development projects conceived and we are looking for the micro-region or the countryside where these projects could be used more successfully (focusing on the project); - There is countryside with typical problems for which we are searching for the right development strategy (focusing on the rural territory) 2. Devising the Strategy of Local Economical Development 2.1. The Local Leaders' Main Concerns After 1989, when the activity of the rural local hall had been expanded, the main concerns concentrated upon:- obtaining as many public funds as possible for the investments in physical and human infrastructure in order to stimulate the growth of the local economy; - influencing the local entrepreneurs and the foreign ones on placing and expanding the local business activity. This effort should rather aim at emerging the growth and not at the promoting of the development. 2.2. Issues of Devising Strategies of the Rural Development - there are few trained professionals at the level of local administration, who could decide upon the local rural development politics;- there are few people in a countryside, who work as volunteers and their professional skills are rather limited; - the large distances render more difficult for the public and private countryside authorities to obtain information 2.3. Negative Effects of the Local Decisions Taken without Proper Grounding - local engaged volunteers are not motivated to work hard and they are not able to separate the strong and weak points of their economy or to observe its opportunities or its dangers, thus they often make out unsuitable strategies;- concentrating the efforts of impelling an economical activity (which functioned well in the past) without proper understanding of the implications that can lead to neglect other new opportunities; - the lack of proper analysis of whole problems and especially the neglecting of the links between problems and solutions, can lead to observing and solving only the symptoms, but not the causes as well. The mistakes lead to failures, which generate frustrations on both leaders and local peoples and it makes harder for them the collaboration in the future. 2.4. Conditions to Improve the Quality of Decisions in Rural Development - There must be a group of local people who are ready to bestow time, energy and other resources in order to obtain improvements. A vivid economic life of the village is due to the energetic people, who can think problems further. The village's vitality consists in the local ability of the social system to obtain incomes and to explore the labour force, to maintain and develop the local economy by adjusting it to different circumstances- the local people's ability to separate the actual problems of the symptoms and to find solutions for solving them; - the access to current information, to dates, to tools and techniques which are necessary to solve the problems; - the increasing participation of locals and the support for the strategy and the tactics of development; the support of the people is very important for both public and private sphere; - the goals and the values of the locals; - the inventory of local and external resources (such as the field, the water, other natural resources, human capital, manpower, material and financial capital, authorities, in the way of rights and obligations, social, political and legislative rules, which settles the use of the resources of the communities), which may be used for rural development; - the locals' accept of the risks; - a continuous analysis of the situation in the rural territory and the implementation of measures in order to reach the goals of the strategy of the development. 2.5. Factors of the Strategy of Rural Development The strategy of development is always adapted to the place, but it must refer to common elements, such as:- the development of the community, which means that among the purely economical objectives appear some social ones ,too: the development of the infrastructure, the renovation and development of the villages, the protection and the conservation of the rural patrimony, the development of private and public services of education, health, recreation etc. - all these in order to increase the quality of the rural life; - the preparation of the community for local activities aiming at the development: local leaders' training, the development of public and private institutions, building the co-operation network, preparing the manpower, creating a good image, financial and resource development etc.; - proper economical development: promoting tourism, the supporting of local entrepreneurs' activities, the attraction of new economical activities, the development of the network of trade and services etc. The main objectives for the development of the Romanian countryside must be the infrastructure, the quality of life, the institutional organisation, the local support, the development of the processing industry, promoting the village, developing of several businesses. 3. What Factors Does the Success of SAPARD Project in Romania Depend On? 3.1. The existence of initiatives in local development, the credibility of the local leaders, and the populations' efforts in order to accomplish them. 3.2. The assistance of public institutions, for supplementing the local resources for a long term development. 3.3. The correct assessment of the eligible projects regarding the real potential of feasibility, in terms of necessity and according to local co-operational level and the regional balance of funds granting. 3.4 Some Questions: - Are the public and civil groups able to organise themselves in order to conceive and implement a strategy of development, which will not necessarily be used to achieve the strategic goals?- Is the local leadership, containing the representatives of economical, social and cultural key-groups, able to be creative when their interest is maintaining the dominant positions? - Are the local solidarity and support reliable? - Can the feeling of regional identity be embodied in collective actions? - Are they aware of the fact that one county, individually, cannot stimulate the development, so that the intensification of collaboration between villages is necessary? - How should the micro-regions, for which a common strategy of development could be elaborated, be formed so that on the level of the micro-regions the local market of manpower may function? - What co-interests are there for creating a collaborative network in order to elaborate the common strategy of development in the micro-areas, which have internal limited dynamics, weak economical bases and weak commercial tides of exchange? - Is the national project flexible enough and is it able to keep account of the diversity concerning the economical structures, the levels of income, the existing potential of development? - Is the central bureaucracy an efficient mechanism of control, is it able to supervise (in these increasing conditions) the diversity and the efficiency of individual projects? 4. General Conclusions Concerning Rural Development in Romania - the concept of rural areas should be extended on small cities, too;- at present the agriculture is and it will be the first economical activity in the rural area on medium term; - it is necessary to accelerate the process of reorganisation of the system of small agricultural farms both by stimulating the land market transactions and by promoting the founding the groups of agricultural producers in order to perform marketing activities and to share the newest technologies of production and storage; - it is necessary to develop human resources in rural areas; - we should conceive a better information system for the rural population. The macro-economical stability and the economical growth represent essential conditions for promoting rural development. prof. dr. Vincze Mária Faculty of Economics Bibliography: Chirca, C., E.D. Tesliuc: From poverty to rural development, 1999Pauna, C.: Output Decline and the Re-allocation of labor, in Economic Transition in Romania p.49 Popescu M.: Piaţa funciară în România formare si funcţionalitate, Studii şi cercetări economice 34/ 2000 Swain Nigel, Maria Vincze (2001): Agricultural Restructuring in Transylvania in the Post-Communist Period. in Post-Communist Romania. Coming to Terms with Transition, ed by D. Light and D. Phinnemore Vincze Maria (2000): Dezvoltarea regionalã şi ruralã. Idei si practici. Presa Universitarã Clujeanã, Cluj-Napoca, 185 p. OECD (2000),Rewiew of agricultural policies: Romania ***Economic transition in Romania. Past, present and future (edited by Christof Rühl, Daniel Daianu). Proceedings of the Conference: "Romania 2000. 10 Years of Transition-Past, Present and Fututre. October 21-22, 1999 ***Rural development in Romania.Green paper, (PHARE project RO 9505-04-03) Bucharest, 1998 ***The National Plan for Agriculture and Rural Development , Version October 2000 ***Household Labour Force Survey (AMIGO) - 1999, NCS, Bucharest *** Romania in figures, NSC, 1998, 1999, 2000 |