Encyklopedia Administracji Publicznej MW Pivot Skin

REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT – it is the socio-economic development → of the region, which is the complex process of changes in the scope of mutually connected social-economic elements referred to the region, such as: economic potential, economic structure, environment; land management and infrastructural management; spatial order, living standards. R.d. is connected with the growth of region’s economic potential, which effects permanent improvement of living standards of its inhabitants and competitiveness growth. In Poland the first legal act, which has regulated this sphere of state policy was passed in the year 2000. The legal act has regulated rules and forms of supporting l.d. and collaboration rules between council of ministers and central administration bodies with local government units. The legal act about National Development Plan from the year 2004 and the legal act from the year 2006 about rules of running development policy have replaced the legal act from 2000. Although the legal act from the year 2000 was repealed, its aims of r.d. are worth mentioning, because their detailed enumeration (broader than in the legal act from 2006) has a significant impact on the way of thinking about regions’ competitiveness and its measuring criteria. As it was previously mentioned r.d. has the following aims to achieve: development of particular areas of the territory, improvement of living standards and living conditions of inhabitants and level of sustaining the local society needs; creation of conditions to increase local societies’ competitiveness; evening out level differences of particular state’s areas and evening out opportunities state inhabitants without consideration of place of residence and also decrease of backwardness of underdeveloped areas, which have the less favorable conditions to develop. Supporting r.d. should consider prerequisites connected with reinforcement of economic cohesion and territorial integrity; the need of defense and safety and prerequisites of cultural heritage and cultural goods. In turn to the tasks of r.d. firstly was included entrepreneurship development of small and medium entrepreneurs; secondly, economic innovations and thirdly, technological transfer. In addition to the tasks there were included: reorganization of selected fields of public services, local and regional economy based on sustainable development principle’ creation of new and stable workplaces; investments in the scope of technical and transport infrastructure improving fulfillment condition of economic investments; projects in the scope of education, educational investments and adult education; projects in regional and local culture, which are the elements of national culture and heritage protection. In these public tasks there are also investments improving state of environment, development of institutions functioning in favor of boosting activity and supporting regional and local societies’ activities in the local governmental sphere. The perception of regional development policy at that time was defined as funds distribution by the state in order to decline social-economic disproportions between regions. The actors, who were responsible for funds distributions were minister adequate to regional issues and the Council of State Regional Policy. A small role played in this matter local government units, which were characteristic consumers of these activities. Which is different in the ruling legal act about rules of running development policy from the year 2006 in comparison to the legal act from the year 2000 is the approach – development policy refers to three activity dimensions: at the state level, regional level and local level. R.d. is the element of complex development policy, which is understood as a group of mutually connected activities, which are undertaken and performed in order to provide state sustainable development; social-economic cohesion as well as regional and spatial one, enhancement of economics’ competitiveness and creation of new workplaces in the national level, regional and local one. According to this facts council of ministries is responsible for state development policy, the voivodship local government is responsible for regional development policy and powiats and municipalities are responsible for local development policy. The aims of development policy are: sustainable development (country, region, local level), socio-economic cohesion, economics’ competitiveness and creation of new workplaces. The above-mentioned actors are running the development policy through development strategies, operational programs and program documents. (→ regional policy; regional operational program; voivodship development strategy; local development) [M. Balcerek-Kosiarz]

Literature: M. Balcerek-Kosiarz, Rola samorządu w sferze podnoszenia konkurencyjności regionów w Polsce i Niemczech, Warszawa 2018 ■ T. Kudłacz, Programowanie rozwoju regionalnego, Warszawa 1999 ■ K. Wlaźlak, Rozwój regionalny jako zadanie administracji publicznej, Warszawa 2010.