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Venelin Boshnakov, Mariya Kazakova
THE USE OF DIGITAL SERVICES
BY BULGARIA’S POPULATION: MAJOR PREREQUISITES, TRENDS AND REGIONAL DIMENSIONS
Summary:
The digitalization of administrative processes and providing electronic services in Bulgaria has undoubtedly led to an increase of the administrative capacity not only of central but also of local organs of authority. At the same time, the differences in the levels of digital knowledge, skills and competences among Bulgaria’s regions have caused a certain disturbance in the offered digital services. The article aims at presenting some major trends in the dynamics of selected indicators which reflect the development of digitalization in the public sector. A specific focus is placed on the regional dimensions of these processes, assuming that local authorities face much more serious challenges in this respect compared to central state organs.
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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.
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Stoyan Prodanov, Dimitrina Lyubenova Prodanova
BULGARIA’S COVERAGE WITH LOCAL INITIATIVE GROUPS – A SPATIAL ANALYSIS
Summary:
This research focuses on the innovative LEADER approach within the Common agricultural policy of the EU which is widely used for the decentralized and at the same time integrated development of rural regions in each member state. Theoretically, the LEADER approach is part of the endogenous theory of economic development and plays an important role in achieving the social, economic and now climatic aims as a specific European model of stimulating the inclusion of communities in local development. From a spatial point of view, the LEADER approach has been applied at the level of municipality or unified neighboring municipalities and/or neighboring settlements-part of a municipality/ies with a population between 10,000 and 150,000 inhabitants by local initiative groups (LIG). Bulgaria’s Program for the development of rural regions 2014–2020 adopts the national definition according to which rural regions are defined at the municipal level (LAU 1) and comprise the territory of 231 municipalities in which the largest town has a population of 30,000 inhabitants. The analysis of the spatial coverage of rural regions with LIG shows the negative effect of the admission of typically urban municipalities within the territories which receive funding through the LEADER network. To eliminate those inaccuracies in determining the policies for the development of rural regions, we propose and test variants to change this arguable, too streamlined and non-corresponding to scientific thought definition of a rural region.
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Silviya Todorova Petkova
PROBLEMS AFORE THE CONVERGENCE OF THE PLANNING REGIONS IN BULGARIA
Summary:
In the present article an analysis is made of the achievements and problems faced by the six planning regions in our country, related to their goals for reducing regional disparities. This is achieved through the analysis of key indicators that serve to measure cohesion in each of its three aspects. In this way it will be established whether the EU Cohesion Policy conducted in our country in the first for our country (MFF) 2007-2013 and in the second (MFF) 2014-2020 have an effect and to what extent this effect has the effect of reducing or deepening regional disparities. For the purposes of the study, the mean-absolute deviation (MAD) and the coefficient of variation (CV) were used as tools for quantitative data analysis. The results of the study confirm the thesis of scientists and authors working in the field that there is no significant progress in reducing disparities between regions in our country.
