South Muntenia Development Region

(Observed Problems and Suggested Strategies)

The development regions of Romania

refer to the eight regional divisions

created in Romania in 1998 in order to better co-ordinate regional development as Romania progressed towards accession to the European Union. The development regions correspond to NUTS II-level divisions in European Union member states. Despite becoming increasingly significant in regional development projects, Romania's development regions do not actually have an administrative status and do not have a legislative or executive council or government. Rather, they serve a function for allocating European Union PHARE funds for regional development, as well as for collection of regional statistics. They also co-ordinate a range of regional development projects and became members of the Committee of the Regions when Romania joined the EU on January 1, 2007. There are 8 development regions in Romania named by their geographical position in the country: Noth-West, Center, North-East, South-East, South-Muntenia, Bucharest_Ilfov, South-West Oltenia, West. The South Muntenia Development Region is situated, as its name suggests, in the south part of Romania, in Muntenia. Of the 41 counties of Romania ( plus the Ilfov county), 7 belong to the South Muntenia Region: Arges, Calarasi, Dambovita, Giurgiu, Ialomita, Prahova, Teleorman. In what follows, I will bring forth some of the problems that the Region deals with, i.e. problems that can be turned into strong points if adopting the proper strategy for the regional development.

Starting from south to north, the Regions territory is made out of plains (70,7%), hills (19,8%) and mountains (9,5%). Due to the fact that the plains are predominant, the agricultural sector represents an important part in the development of the Region. This sector is present in all the counties, especially in the 4 counties from the southern part: Ialomita, Calarasi, Giurgiu and Teleorman. This is how the agricultural area looks like: 80,2% arable land, 15,7% pastures and hayfields, 4,1% vineyards and orchards.
Agricultural area:

Sursa INS, Statistica teritoriala

Adding the favorable natural conditions, a full development of the agricultural branches in the Region will result. But although there are great advantages in the structure of the agricultural area and in the natural conditions, the Region (as most of the country) lacks appropriate and modern technology in the field of agriculture. This is a problem that needs solving if regional development is wanted. Another problem in the South Muntenia region that needs solving, refers to the underprivileged regions. There are four underprivileged zones: Filipesti, Ceptura and Mizil in the Prahova county and Zimnicea in the Teleorman county. The underprivileged zones are those geographical areas which are clearly defined in territory and which fulfill at least one of the following conditions: - the rate of the unemployed from the total amount of the area, must be at least three times bigger than the rate of the unemployed from the total amount of the national working resources in the last three months that precede the month when the type-approval documentation was required. - must be isolated areas lacking communication systems, and with undeveloped infrastructure. 2

Both of the two conditions for the underprivileged zones apply in our regional case. At the end of the year 2002, the unemployment rate from the South Muntenia Region was 9,2% i.e. greater than the national rate of 8,4%. As to the communication system of the Region, there are areas that greatly need improvement. These aspects will also be discussed later when suggesting the development strategy.
Populatia ocupata

Sursa:INS?AgentiaNationala pentru Ocuparea Fortei de munca Sursa: INS ? Balanta fortei de munca la sfarsitul anului

Suggested regional development strategies for the South Muntenia Development Region For the matters previously discussed when referring to regional problems great agricultural potential lacking a well-thought agricultural system and underprivileged regions I would suggest as proper, the regional strategy based on offer and the regional strategy based on request. The regional strategy based on offer combines the analysis of the external factors of development with the development possibilities offered by the regional structure. This strategy aims the improvement of the local businesses through public programmes oriented in: infrastructure investments, technology transfer, development of the workforce, cutting down the business costs by direct subventions. The strategy brings forth the innovative factor, combining together the resources, technology (improvements needed in agriculture) and economical relations. This strategy can easily go hand in hand in the struggle ford regional development with the regional strategy based on request. The request strategy aims development by intelligently using

the internal resources from the Region by using some external economical incentives. These external incentives are fiscal: not paying different taxes and excises in certain problem-regions and also include investments in the public services and in the communication infrastructure. The purpose is the enhancement of the attractiveness of the Region for the capital investors and the creation of new markets for the existing activities export processing zones. This is the case of the four underprivileged zones mentioned before. A key fact of the strategy is the continual integration of the economical units attracted into the Region, i.e. maintaining them even after time limit of the fiscal exemption is off. The South Muntenia Region also has a free zone the free zone Giurgiu. The politics of the free zones are also included in the regional strategy based on request. I will end by quoting the words of Liviu Musat, the director of ADR Sud Muntenia, expressed at the celebration of 10 Years of Regional Development in the South of Romania: We want to attract new investors in the Region, both from Romania and from abroad, hoping in this way to raise up the life standards of the communities we represent. We believe that only in this way we will be able to improve the social cohesion and to overpass the economical discrepancies, at the same time strengthening the economical competivity of the Region.