National Priorities of the Rural Development Policy

R. Popov

Abstract: The successful development of the rural regions will depend on their ability to adapt to the opened competitiveness environment of the EU and to the whole globalization process of the world economy and the social life. Moreover the rural regions in the EU vary considerably in their social and economic features, which require a differentiated policymaking. The objective of the article is to bring out the political priorities in this field on the base of a comparative analysis of the status of the Bulgarian and other member countries’ rural regions and to outline the main strategic points of local sustainable development. The high relative share of the employment and of the created GVA in the primary sector emphasize upon the still strong dependency of the economics of the rural regions on agriculture, forestry, hunting and fishing. Meanwhile, in the modernizing process of these sectors will be released a significant part of the workforce. From this point of view is necessary to be achieved national and local strategies for sustainable development with a priority of opening of new working places. The achievement of sustainable development premises that it is in condition to meet the needs of the generation of today without impeaching the abilities of future generations to face and achieve their necessities. It was considered until now that it means a reasonable utilization of the natural resources, recovering when necessary the ecologic balance. But the actual economic status of some European countries clearly shows that the sustainable development has other as important aspects – economic growth on a strong base, without deficit accumulation, a fair distribution of the economic burdens between the generations (pension systems, etc.), as well a more balanced territorial development. The success of the development strategies will depend before all on the ability of the local societies to mobilize and utilize the local resources, including the unique conditions. This requires management modernizing and building a capacity of the local administrations and attracting investments, projects’ achievement and support of business initiatives and innovations, uniting the efforts of the local authority, the business associations and the NG sector, increasing of the institutional efficiency, etc. New options for opening of new working positions could be searched at a local level through recovering and development on new economic and technological basis of the agricultural production, development of the food-processing sector, building of market infrastructure, utilizing of the existing housing stock in the villages, the built infrastructure and the natural conditions for business development, offering qualitative services for active recreation and recovery of urban citizens, diversifying of the local economy through the development and the creation of new forms of economic activity of local residents in the field of services (tourism, repairing works, construction, crafts, communications) and in the processing industry.

Keywords: local strategies for development; priorities; rural regions

Date published: 2018-02-12