Regional Planning Process

Given the importance of the programming process for the period 2007-2013 and also the significant changes that occur in the context of Romania’s accesion to the European Union, an important process of reflection upon the purpose of the Regional Development Plan, upon the entire planning process, took place at a regional level.
Mainly, through the present planning process we have set as. our operational objective, raising the awareness of the regional partners regarding the need to concentrate on those actions capable to create a competitive advantage for the North-West Region, for Romania, and also regarding the need to create a critical mass of “local initiative groups” able to sustain the entire following process, in the implementation stage. This is the reason why an extended, more complex, more profound approach resulted by active consultation of the regional partners.
The entire planning process was meant to guarantee an element that enforces a strategy: a common vision, as a basis both for the programming and for all the following actions of implementation of the strategy, knowing that these are in fact “individual” actions; in this effect, a major aim is that of increasing the specific ability to “manage” development, and also the structural funds absorption capacity. We have decided to ensure a stronger involvement of the private sector in the process and also to better reflect this problem in the public debate, that is to strengthen the real social dialogue and to prepare the transition to a truly civic dialogue by stimulating the involvement in the process of the sub-county levels, of the local communities.
A project was also initiated in the field of institutional development, meant to result in an Action Plan for the improvement of the administrative capacity in the local public administrations in the region. The project was carried out in parallel with the planning process, also coordinated by the North-West RDA, called Partnership for Development.
The planning process is still in process of development at this moment. The main stages of the process are:
· The mobilization and involvement at a regional level stage (arousing the interest, mobilization of the regional partnership networks, revision of the existent documentation)
· The mobilization and involvement at the sub-regional planning levels stage (county, sub-county, stimulation of the “local groups of initiative”, of the local communities)
· The regional consent stage (revision of the regional approach according to the reactions in the previous stage)
· The final formal approvals stage.

From the very beginning an analysis of the strategic development options was carried out, which resulted in the choice of a polycentric development model for the North-West Region (a development policy sustained by a network of localities that play the part of development poles), focused on economic growth, through the functional specialization of the territory. As far as the polycentric development is concerned, there appeared the need to consolidate the potential of involvement of the county capitals (Oradea, Bistrita, Cluj-Napoca, Baia Mare, Satu Mare, Zalau), and also the need to consolidate and/or increase the potential of involvement of a minimum of other nine cities, that, at the end of the programming period, will be classified on a superior rank than the present one. The development of the latter must take into account especially the functional specialization, by sectors, of the territories in the influence area.

The implementation of the strategic options

* Polycentric development

A method of zoning of the territory of the Region in territorial planning units (TPUs) was elaborated at the level of the North-West Region (Northern Transylvania).
In our opinion, the TPUs correspond to areas that have certain common characteristics and a unitary functionality. In this way the TPU can be individualized in a common historic and socio-cultural identity, with similar ethnic-folkloric traditions, through the gravity around the same center of influence, through a close relationship of economic collaboration between the component localities etc. Associations between the component administrative-territorial units can already be established in some TPUs, while others can only have an informal character.
The TPU is composed of several administrative-territorial units (villages, communes and towns) and its limits do not necessarily take into account the county borders. Moreover, the TPUs can be very different from the point of view of the population or of the size of the territory whose limits it marks. Based on these criteria there have been identified 41 TPUs in the North-West Region.
Subsequently, these criteria were developed in a TPU validation method which also took into consideration other criteria regarding both the natural component (relief, natural resources, protection of the natural patrimony etc.), and the anthropic, supporting component (population structure and dynamics, dwelling development, accessibility, development of the technical-urban infrastructures, the communication infrastructures etc.).
Inside each TPU a development pole was identified – an urban center whose economic evolution can stimulate the growth or the decline of the whole area. The interventions will be directed mostly towards these development poles, supposing that this procedure will have a stimulating effect for the entire TPU (or sometimes even for a greater area). These poles will be placed on a hierarchic system according to their stimulation capacity – a fact expressed by the notion of rank of the development pole identified in the Making-up Plan for the Territory of the North-West Region (MPT)

* Economic growth

This strategic option will direct all the interventions within the regional strategy, being an objective to be reached by all the identified TPUs – e.g. the priority environmental investments will be a support for the development of the business infrastructure in the area, the human resources will be the ones oriented towards the training of the workforce etc.

* Functional specialization

The county councils were asked to identify in each TPU the priority economic sectors based on three criteria:

* the existence in the area of natural resources able to sustain the development of the sector
* the sector structure of the local economy
* the existence of a well trained workforce in the area of in the adjacent areas (or at least of a necessary education infrastructure – especially professional and technical and/or university education).

In the next stage the scientific coordinators assigned by each County Council united these sectors at a county level based on a mathematic method:
in each TPU the priority sectors were scored according to 4 criteria: the competitive potential of the sector, the innovative potential of the sector, the stimulation potential of the sector and the rank of the development pole (according to the Making-up Plan of the Territory of the North-West Region).
The scores obtained for each criterion were weighed with an importance coefficient and then totalized, resulting in the score of the sector in the respective TPU.
The scores obtained in all the TPUs were totalized resulting in the score of the sector in the county. Based on these scores, a hierarchy was created by choosing the first six sectors from that moment on considered to be the county’s priorities.
In each county there was a consultation of the partners regarding the priority sectors, based mostly on the classical focus-group method, by adding though an inquiry based on a questionnaire, during some meetings with the main representatives of the respective sectors in the county, organized at the headquarters of the County Councils. Both methods of analysis focused on the same subjects, completing each other. The sectors received scores according to: the importance of the sector for the development of the county, the competitive, innovative and stimulating potential of the respective sector.
The scoring made by the partners was statistically processed and, based on the results obtained, the priority sectors of the North-West Region were established for the programming period 2007-2013. These are:
1. IT&C
2. Superior education and research
3. Tourism
4. Agriculture
5. Food and consumer industry (furniture and clothing)
6. Automotive and equipment industry

At the same time and in parallel, the planning process also took place at a county level, with the creation of working groups for each sector, the elaboration of the 2007-2013 County Development Plans, with consultations regarding the strategic options, the priority sectors both in the TPU, and at a county level. At present the counties that form the North-West Region are in different stages of elaboration of the CDPs, either in progress or finalized, even approved by Decision of the County Council.
The natural purpose of this vast planning process, of the parallel measure of development of the administrative and management capacities at a regional level for the efficient absorption of post-adhesion funds will be the creation of portfolios of priority, strategic and well-prepared projects at a sub-county/county/regional level on various fields. The projects must have an impact on the sustainable development, and must not focus simply on the absorption of funds. The sustainable regional development can not exist without the community development, the approach must be from the bottom to the top, and the local/micro-regional level must generate viable projects, it must sustain, prepare and successfully implement them, in the interest of its own development.
In parallel, at a regional level, Documents for Regional Sector Programming were elaborated – Transportation, Environment, Human Resources, Tourism, Competitiveness.