Regional development strategy - RDA South

4DEVELOPMENT STRATEGY4.DevelopmentStrategyREGIONAL DEVELOPMENT STRATEGY FOR THE ECONOMIC REGION SOUTHBefore embarking on the process offormulating the strategy, the regionaldevelopment partners agreed on aset of principles and values that setthe overall context for the strategy.The fundamental principles that are expressedin the REDS of the Economic RegionSouth are:• Keep the number of priority areas limited tothree to enable for a better focus of the strategicefforts on the issues that are drivers ofthe development of the region.• Concentrate on economic development issuesand regional competitiveness ratherthan addressing a wider range of social issues.• Treat key social issues as cross-cutting issuesthat influence the sustainability of developmentand pervade the business environment.These include the principle ofequal opportunities for disadvantagedgroups (youth, women, ethnic minoritiesand handicapped) as well as improved educationfor workforce skill base.• Environmental issues are also of cross-cuttingcharacter. They have been consideredwithin the business environment area butas a rule, they are taken into account acrossthe entire programming cycle.• Creation of wealth. Strategic efforts areconcentrated on jumpstarting the economyof the region or, in other words, on the responsiblecreation of wealth and prosperity.The primarily focus of the strategy, particularlyin early stages, is not on wealth redistribution.Stakeholders in the development process ofthe region perceive the regional vision to be astatement of common interest and a commitmentto co-operate toward common, agreedstrategic priorities that are identified in thestrategy document. After working throughthe regional profile, the socio-economic needsanalysis and the SWOT, the following clear visionstatement has emerged:Economic Region South is an area wherethe strategically planned sustainabledevelopment, cooperation and successfulpartnerships have led to increasedcompetitiveness of the economy basedon the region’s strengths, created a favourableenvironment for investing andprovided for the well-being of the citizen.As a result of preliminary analysis and inline with the adopted strategy principles, theregional development partners selected threePriorities that the Regional Economic DevelopmentStrategy is addressing. These prioritiesare seen as having the best potential forleading the change in the region. They havebeen identified as:1. Development of the Business Environment;2. Development of agriculture and foodprocessing industry; and3. Development of tourism.The last two priorities are of vertical or sectoralnature. While there is inevitably someoverlap between all three, they still have thebenefit of being easily identifiable which contributesto the recognition of associated objectivesmeasures.26