Martin Harizanov
PERSPECTIVE SPATIAL MODEL
FOR SUSTAINABLE REDIVISION INTO REGIONS AND PROVIDING FOR BULGARIA’S REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT
Summary:
Bearing in mind the process of depopulation of Bulgaria’s North-west region, the planning and further worsening of the socio-economic indicators of the region necessitate taking actions for the redivision of the NUTS 2 regions. The need of differentiating new division into regions is determined by the high degree of the region’s lagging in key socio-economic factors such as: transport infrastructure, demographic characteristics, GDP per capita, average gross salary, etc. The proposed model for division of Bulgaria’s regions preserves in the long run the number of citizens in the level 2 regions set in the normative base and allows the differentiation of five regional centers. This means that in a case of lack of force majeure circumstances in the socio-economic aspect in the country, we can achieve economic integration among the regions and development of regional policy for the purposes of the implementation of financial securing of the development of the lagging regions, which as of this moment, encompass the planned North-west region.
