HUMAN DEVELOPMENT REPORT ! BULGARIA 1996
56
potential in most of the municipalities can-
not be defined as satisfactory in terms of
quality and quantity. In
the period of eco-
nomic crisis and social transformation, this
situation considerably complicates the pos-
sibilities for stabilization of development
on a national and local scale.
4. An analysis and assessment of the
differentiation of municipalities in the eco-
nomic and social sphere brings out several
important problems. Depending on the level
of development in the different municipali-
ties, they are manifest in a specific manner
and affect with differing acuteness the de-
velopment of man and his environment.
(a) The problem of the technological
restructuring of the economy on a regional
scale is most acute in the big industrialized
and integrally developed municipalities. It
can be resolved by intensified innovation
policy, including the attraction of foreign
capital and the establishment of joint ven-
tures. The enterprises in the big munici-
palities and settlements may have a defi-
nite export orientation. Quite a few of the
settlements have a potential for the devel-
opment of services. Part of the prospects
for a future revival and development of the
municipalities of the second and third
group are associated with the transforma-
tion of the medium-sized settlements into
secondary pillars of development. The pro-
duction of
the small underdeveloped mu-
nicipalities
should be mostly based on lo-
cal resources and should be oriented to
specific regional needs, whereby services
and processing related to agriculture should
be developed. Efforts along this line could
stop the depopulation of large territories
of the country and bring about the improve-
ment of employment opportunities in them.
(b) The problem of the contradiction
between economic development and envi-
ronmental balance. The high economic
standard of the leading municipalities in
Bulgaria is most often at the expense of
the environment (Devnya, Bourgas, Sred-
nogorie, Sofia and elsewhere). In territo-
rial units where production lines close
down, there is an improvement of the en-
vironmental situation. This holds good for
municipalities in crisis with localization of
depressed productions. Apparently the eco-
nomic development of all municipalities
should proceed within the boundaries of
tolerable loading of the regional eco-sys-
tems. This would provide favourable liv-
ing conditions to the people who now pre-
fer to work in highly polluted and more
developed settlements.
(c) Greater differentiation of the liv-
ing conditions and exacerbation of the cen-
tre-periphery opposition. On a regional scale
it is manifested in the form of a highly de-
veloped big city, surrounded by underde-
veloped territories. It can be seen on the
map of the country that the first group
municipalities are more or less thickly sur-
rounded by underdeveloped municipalities.
This combination is particularly typical in
the northwestern part of the country and
around the big cities as Sofia, Plovdiv,
Varna-Devnya, Pleven and others.
These contradictions have accumu-
lated for decades but they have intensified
during the years of transition. This has been
facilitated both by the legislative base and
by the inadequate policy of regional and
local development. From the point of view
of conditions for the human development,
the centre-periphery opposition is mostly
manifested in the great differences in so-
cial infrastructure and in the quality of the
social services. These prove to be some of
the causes underlying the greater migra-
tion and the depopulation of the periphery
regions. The demographic and social prob-
lems of the underdeveloped regions are an
additional factor for the ebb in the eco-
nomic activity and for the lesser opportu-
nities for self-development.
5. The change of the mechanisms of
implementing regional policy can no longer
be put off. The accumulated experience has
to be summed up and the elaboration of
new principles and legislative base should
wind up; these should determine the strat-
egy of regional development and provide
The conditions for
human development
are unsatisfactory in
most municipalities
The upholding of the
centre- periphery
opposition is a sign of
unsustainable
development
57
SOCIO-ECONOMIC DIFFERENTIATION OF MUNICIPALITIES
mechanisms for its implementation. The
policy of regional development has a po-
tential to become an initiating, leading and
synchronizing factor in the implementation
of the structural reform.
6. In the country there are no economic,
social and political prerequisites for the en-
dorsement of a purely market approach to
the implementation of the regional policy.
These conditions rather point out to the
need of state regulation in territorially de-
fined zones, and in the first place with re-
spect to regions in a critical state. One of
the main objectives of this policy is to blunt
the impact of the crisis conditions on the
local economy and to counteract its com-
plete destruction.
7. The characterization of a municipal-
ity as mountainous, hilly or frontierline
is not always tantamount to a critical socio-
economic state. The critical state is above
all socio-economic, rather than geographi-
cal in nature. This implies at least two things:
(a) the need of a general regime of ren-
dering aid to the municipalities in crisis, as
has been,
for instance,
the regime of addi-
tional financial aid to municipalities in a criti-
cal state since the beginning of financial year
1995; (b) the need of a specific regime for
aiding municipalities, grouped according to
similar features (mountainous, agrarian,
frontierline, etc.), via programmes, projects,
preferences, etc. Those two regimes should
operate in parallel and should mutually
complement each other.
8. The establishment of a financial
base for the state regulation in critical re-
gions calls for: (a) the formation of a spe-
cial National Fund for Regional Develop-
ment; (b) further specification and synchro-
nisation of the approaches and mechanisms
for allocating subsidies for municipalities
in a state of crisis.
9. The low development standards as
well as the differences in the socio-eco-
nomic situation of the municipalities jus-
tify the need of working out programmes
for international aid, which should be con-
formed to the maximum to the specific
needs of each territorial unit
No regional
development is possible
without state regulation