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The problems of regional development in Montenegro
85-88Views:107Economic development is a continuous, stochastic process considering that development depends on a multitude of historical, political, economic, cultural, ethnic and other factors. In the process of development, each country puts effort into strengthening their manufacturing potential, increasing the competitiveness of their economy by modernizing technology, and raising the level of education, culture etc. Owing to the accentuated actions of these factors, and different social, economic and other circumstances, there has been emerging polarizations in regional development, urbanization and so on. Proof of a country’s level of economic development can be found in various indicators such as capital equipment; the share of manufacturing, agriculture, and foreign trade; the share of the private sector in total ownership; the development of financial institutions and capital markets; the development and stability of the legal system; the development of transport, telecommunication and other infrastructure; the realized standard of living; the development of democracy and human rights protection; preserved environment etc. Economies of developing countries, including Montenegro, are usually characterized by a low capital equipment and low labor productivity, expensive manufacturing and insufficient share of world trade, high import dependence, uncompetitiveness, high unemployment, undeveloped entrepreneurship, and an undeveloped financial institutions. Polarized countries in an economic and development sense, are therefore those which are unevenly developed, and are constantly faced with highly pronounced problems of disparity in regional development and demographic problems. Solving these problems is a long-term process and necessitates. The design of a regional policy that is more efficient than the previous ones, as well, as building a different procedure for fulfilling the adopted regional policies.
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Challenges to sustainable rural development in Russia: social issues and regional divergences
45-51Views:199Paper aims at investigation of contemporary approaches to sustainable rural development in Russia. It includes the overview of current experiences in rural development, analysis of major economic and social indicators of rural areas in comparison with urban ones. Analysis included the set of indicators such as number of rural people, number of rural settlements, rates of births and mortalities, natural and migration increases and declines of population, rates of employment and unemployment, average monthly nominal per capita wages, and level of the subsistence minimum. Indicators have been measured separately for rural and urban areas; regions have been grouped in relation to the particular indicator. The research is concluded by discovery of growth points for rural development and a set of recommendations on perspective measures of state and local policies in rural areas, directed on increase of living standards of rural population and retention of labour resources in their traditional rural areas of inhabitation.
JEL: Q18, P25
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Regional identity in rural development: Three case studies of regional branding
19-24Views:251Within the globalizing world, regions and their identities are subjected to great pressure. At present, places are engaged in a process of “territorial competition” in an integrated world economy. The identity of the region can be used as a starting point to brand a region and differentiate it from others. In the regional branding process, the region as a whole becomes a product or brand and offers a “basket” of regional products and services. Regional branding is aimed at creating a more distinctive image or reputation, which helps to increase regional competitiveness. This paper discusses the possibility of regional identity as a mobilizing force for rural development, by studying best practice examples of regional branding. Using the grounded theory approach, we conducted interviews in three case regions:West Cork (Ireland), Groene Woud (the Netherlands) and Pajottenland (Belgium). The study of these cases led to the formulation of critical success factors on the organization of regional branding. Comparative analysis of the cases demonstrates the importance of passionate initiators as ambassadors of the region and the advantage of a well-coordinated internal network in the region. Next to that, the internal marketing of the region is considered an important critical success factors.
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Driving factors behind Uganda’s rural pastoral communities’ social-economic status; a comparison between Karamoja Region and Ankole Region
Views:337This study aimed to analyze the social-economic status of Karamoja, Uganda’s largest pastoral region that has consistently stood out as the least developed region in Uganda. The region is naturally endowed with a variety of minerals such as marble, limestone, gold, etc. This has attracted (both local and international) artisanal and small-scale miners into the region whose contribution to the region’s development seem negligible. The Majority of the residents derive their livelihoods from livestock as a primary source. Three major rural development aspects i.e., social, ecological, and economic dimensions were assessed and compared to the Ankole region, one of Uganda’s rural pastoral regions that have over time registered progress in livestock production and regional development. Based on this comparison, similarities and differences can be identified and used to build the foundation for the development of a SWOT analysis that will focus on the Strength, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats that exist in this rural pastoral region of Karamoja. This study creates a cornerstone for developing sustainable rural development strategies based on a focused analysis of sociological factors that are fundamental in unmasking the ground reality in the region.
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The importance of equestrian tourism enterprises in tourism destination management in Hungary
25-27Views:161Hungary is the pioneer of the European Equestrian Tourism. Several thousands foreign tourists visited specific equestrian programmes already in the 1960’s and 1970’s.At the same times some hundred thousands of holiday tourists visited equestrian shows and programs organised in different areas of our country. From the beginning of the 1990’s equestrian enterprises (pensions, stables, specialized equestrian services) have been established. The equestrian tourism enterprises are well represented all over the country.They are well organised, the Hungarian EquestrianTourism Association integrates 80% of equestrian tourism enterprises. Uniquely in Europe, the voluntary professional qualification, called “the horseshoe qualification system” started in 1998. The most common quality categories are for entrepreneurs are 3 or 2 or 1 horseshoe. The system ofTourism Destination Management organizations could provide the background for the development of equestrian tourism enterprises as well.At local level these needs would be product development, the quality control and quality management, at regional level the most important aims could be the development of regional equestrian image and increasing the attractiveness of this image, finally hardening the positions of equestrian tourism destination.
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Sheep production in Hungary – is it a sustainable sector?
95-100Views:138The question of sustainability of agricultural production especially animal production and events leading to its development can be dated back to the second part of the last century. Sustainability is a priority subject matter as it is a core element in our existence and in the survival of the forthcoming generations. The notion of sustainability comprises three aspects: ecological, social and political and economic target systems, which by now have been supplemented with cultural and regional elements including the protection of environment, local traditions, scale of values, cultural and historical heritage. The principles of sustainable development also include the improvement of human and animal health and the maintenance of vital rural communities. The priority notion of sustainability of agricultural production refers also to animal husbandry and especially sheep production. Sheep have contributed substantially to the grassland-based agricultural production in Hungary for centuries. Sheep sector is important in rural areas as the tool of sustainability of animal production. It should also be highlighted that contrary to numerous efforts, the globally difficult process of sustainable development poses almost unsolvable problems for implementers even on local and regional levels. This paper will review briefly the levels of sustainability in the Hungarian animal production with a special regard to sheep production and their content and then points out the most significant economic issues by the application of “SWOT” – analysis, “problem tree’and “structure of objectives” methods, on the grounds of the received findings.
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European cycle tourism: a tool for sustainable regional rural development
115-119Views:253We present an economic impacts model based on direct expenditures for European cycle routes, originally designed in 2009 as part of a study commissioned by the European Parliament. At its request, the study was updated in 2012, including a refined version of our model which takes some limitations of the former model into account. Our main findings are that cycle tourists’ daily spending is comparable to that of other tourists, and that cycle tourism can contribute significantly in particular to rural economies that have not previously enjoyed mainstream tourism development. (European) cycle tourism thus proves to be useful as an (additional) tool for regional rural development. We arrived at a total estimated direct expenditures in Europe of almost €44 billion (€35 billion from day trips and €8.94 billion from overnight trips). We applied the model to the routes of EuroVelo, the European cycle route network which is currently being developed, showing their considerable economic potential of over €7 billion in direct expenditures. Furthermore, cycle tourism has a far lower negative impact on the environment (in terms of carbon dioxide emissions) than other forms of tourism. Cycle tourism is therefore a good example of a low carbon tourism product which could be developed as a major slow travel opportunity across (rural) Europe.
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Cross border co-operation in rural areas giving the example of Bihar region
39-45Views:115After the political changes in 1990-ies in Hungary and in East-Central Europe the process of forming cross-border regional cooperations reached a new period. The border regions of the different national states join to encourage co-operation. The most remarkably connected system in our region is the Carpathian Euroregion. This paper deals with one of the most successful initiatives started between Hungary and Romania. The most outstanding co-operation of the past few years exists between the settlements of the former Bihar County which territory today belongs to two countries. The aims of the paper are to research the development of the border region; to reveal the factors of the cooperation and to observe the possibilities for the development. To obtain the goals desktop research, cluster analysis and data analysis were used, as statistic methods. The results emphasize that the development and renewal of the cross-border co-operations were supported by historical factors and good practices adapted from Western Europe. Although economic backwardness or the administrative problems are against the cooperation, historical economic connections facilitate the common work in the Hungarian-Romanian border region.
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Regional examination of certain factors influencing the quality of life
73-79Views:115The rate of unemployment in Hajdú-Bihar County is several percent higher than the national average and the actual number of unemployed people is the highest, resulting in considerable social problems. The majority of families living under the minimum subsistence level cannot cover their housing maintenance costs. These costs include the rents of tenement flats, public charges, water, electricity, gas and district heating charges. Cutting the number of unemployed people and stimulating economic activity is a high priority. Important tools towards achieving these goals include the promotion of non-agricultural activities by households engaged in agriculture, incentives for rural micro-enterprises, the development of rural and agro-tourism and support for traditional arts and crafts. As for general subjective well-being,although its average value is positive, merely 50% of the population is contented. Naturally it does not mean that we are unhappy. 4 respondents out of 5 claim that they are rather happy.This may suggest that the picture is not so pessimistic as it is revealed by questions about living conditions.
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Opportunities for the inclusion of less-favoured areas in the Northern Great Plain region
59-60Views:141Agricultural economics and its part, rural economics plays a determining role in Hungary. Most rural families perform self-sufficient farm production for a living. In the present conditions of infrastructure and human resources, there are regions where the only rural alternative for employment is agriculture. There are significant differences among the regions considering natural resources and equipment available for farm production, and these differences affect potential income (Vöröset al. 1999). The primary aim of the European Union is to reduce such differences among the regions.The new research program of the University of Debrecen tackles the fundamental questions of regional development through the research and management of social asymmetries by using economic and other relevant tools. This program also provides suggestions for facilitating the development of less-favoured areas.
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Multifunctional agriculture: An engine of regional economic growth?
7-15Views:119The historical role of agriculture in economic geography and recent conceptual developments – including multifunctional agriculture (MFA), the new economic geography, amenity-driven growth, and the “world is flat” and “creative class” hypotheses – are examined, and recent empirical research in NorthAmerica and Europe is reviewed, in order to assess the potential for MFA as an engine of regional economic growth. Ideal MFA policy corrects market failures and is mostly amenity-augmenting. It has the capacity to enhance opportunities for farmers on urban fringe; stimulate growth in high-amenity rural regions accessible to cities that offer opportunities for high-value work; and generate growth in relatively remote high-amenity regions. The scope for market-failure-correcting MFA policy to propel economic growth in lessfavored regions is limited – remoteness is non-responsive to policy in the short to medium term, and amenities that attract in-migration (e.g. proximity to sea, lakes, mountains, pleasant climate) are givens for favored locations but can at best be complemented by pro-active policy – but not trivial. While this paper focuses on regional economic growth, it well to rememberthat growth is not everything. Regions unlikely to experience growth need to create satisfying futures. Market-failure-correcting MFA policy has the potential to improve quality of life, well-being, and perhaps incomes in many if not all rural places regardless of location. This accomplishment would not be trivial – economic growth for all regions regardless of resources, amenities, and remoteness is not a serious prospect, and regions in decline face daunting problems maintaining essential services and quality of life.
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The assessment of intellectual capital in Polish regions
101-105Views:158In a knowledge-based economy intangible assets are indispensable to achieve competitive advantages. Resources like intellectual capital are perceived as crucial factors especially for regional growth. Intellectual capital is comprehended as a multidimensional concept, defined and explained in many various ways, depending on the context and further application. The purposes of this article is to consider the role and importance of the intellectual capital for regional development and competitiveness and to try to use it for an estimation of regional advance progress. On the basis of literature review the article provides a framework to analyse the intellectual capital and its main components. The central attention of the paper focuses on the evaluation of the intellectual capital in Polish regions and its influence on regional performance. The paper surveys the empirical examination of 16 Polish regions in terms of intellectual capital and simultaneously assesses the level of intellectual capital in rural areas. The article provides the insight into the role and value of the intellectual capital in Polish regions.
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TREND ANALYSIS OF UGANDA’S COFFEE SECTOR
Views:162Coffee (Coffea arabica and C. canephora) is an important commercial crop globally, and the second most traded global commodity by developing nations after oil. Uganda is among the top 10 coffee exporters worldwide, and second in Africa. The total export amounted to 301,366 tons of “green” coffee in 2021, forming the second-largest commodity export, and contributing about 12.4% to Uganda’s total formal exports. However, the country’s overall performance over time remains unclear given the fluctuations in production and export prices. This study aimed to evaluate the production and export trends of Uganda’s coffee sector by: (i) defining the overall direction of coffee production and export value, (ii) assessing the market variability, and (iii) evaluating the global cross-cutting issues regarding coffee production and export. Data was extracted from FAOSTAT and Uganda Coffee Development Authority (UCDA) databases. Trends were analysed using the Mann-Kendall and Sen’s Slope test, while market variability was analyzed using the fixed base index (FBI) and coefficient of variation. VOSviewer software was used to analyze literature from the Web of Science database to highlight cross-cutting issues. Results indicated a significant positive increase in coffee production and export value (p = 0.0001, Slope = 1736.67 tons and p = 0.001, Slope = 4.44 million USD) respectively. Among the top ten coffee producers, Uganda presented the third worst unstable coffee export value with a 20.1% coefficient of variation. Fairtrade, climate change, and certification were the most outstanding global cross-cutting issues. Market stabilization mechanisms should be developed through value addition by establishing coffee processing and roasting plants, as well as strategic governance and policy support to counter emerging global challenges such as climate change.
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Water footprint in Hungary
83-91Views:174More and more news report on water-related extreme environmental phenomena. Some of these are natural, which are often beyond the human race. But others are definitely due to anthropogenic effects. I think the water footprint index is able to highlight national and international water-use processes and gives us the opportunity of organizing a sustainable, consumer-, environmental- and governancefriendly management. 81% of the fresh water withdrawal is from surface water bodies in the EU. In Europe as a whole, 44% of abstraction is used for energy production, 24% for agriculture, 21% for public water supply and 11% for industry. Public water supply is confined to ground waters. To the water resources related human activity caused qualitative and quantitative amortisation will grow worse in the foreseeable future due to the climate change. Beside seasonal differences the sectoral differences are increasingly becoming critical between different areas, such as Southern and Western Europe. The former, wrong agricultural support system has worsened the situation since it gave financial aid for the used improper techniques of water-intensive crop cultivation. By today, this seems to be solved. Public water abstraction is affected by many factors, of which mostly are based on social situation and habits, but technological leakage receives a big role as well. Interesting, that for example the residents’water consumption in Eastern Europe decreased because price were raised and regular measurements were introduced. But in Southern Europe it increased due to tourism in the past period. Industrial water withdrawal decreased across Europe because of the decline of industry and the development of technologies. According to the European Environment Agency (EEA), the Union needs a sustainable, demand-driven leadership which focuses on the preservation and use efficiency. This have already appeared in politics and legal administration as well. Current research calls the attention to the significance and difficulties of this kind of domestic estimation presented trough the water footprint calculation of bread and pork in Hungary. The received data indicate the domestic water consumption trends in a modern approach. There is no doubt for me about the urgent necessity of water footprint calculation because as a result innovative, sustainability supported environmental, social, economical, and political relationships can be created – not just on local, regional or national level, but on interregional, European and even global stage.
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Extent and characteristic of diversification among Hungarian agricultural holdings
37-44Views:111Through the connection to rural resources agriculture has an impact on the three functions of countryside: ecology, society and economy. Resources of economy and production environment are continuously changing thus farmers have to adapt to these changing circumstances. One of the adaptation methods is the diversification of activities to promote effective capacity utilization and additional profit. However there is no standard definition of diversification from the point of agricultural economics aspect both traditional approaches and the influence of European Union should also be considered to define it. Diversification and alternative income opportunities could be subsistence possibilities for several farmers. This could be defined not only at private holdings’ but at enterprises’ level. According to a traditional approach Hungarian statistical databases collect on-farm and off-farm agricultural activities depending on the connection to resources of a farm business. Analysing this database an overall picture could be defined considering the position and characteristic of diversified farmers and the popularity of each activity among agricultural producers. Based on a study, published in 2011 (Hamza, 2011) this paper also involves the latest statistical data (2010, 2013). Analysing dataset of period 2000-2013 this paper gives an overall overview about national and regional position and characteristics of diversified holdings and activities.
JEL code: Q19
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Estimating the economic potential of rural microregions
71-79Views:107Experts have been involved in the problems of determining microregions in Hungary since their establishment. In Hungary, the microregions (NUTS17 IV) were established by top-down method. This system cut through existing economic and cultural connections. The villages set up their own bottom-up microregions, which have tighter connections than the official regions. In my article, I estimate the economic potential of two regions, the regions Erdôspuszta (Hungary) and Hohenlohe (Germany), after analyzing the relevant literature on determining economic potential. Projects realized by enterprises and civil organizations have strategic significance in the economies of settlements, and it is true that their developers are not members of the formal management of the settlement. The local governments, however, should conduct realization and topdown of projects, and they have to have an image of the future and strategic plans. The present Hungarian practice, which appears in supply oriented applications, is not expedient over the long-run.The projects of settlements are run parallel to each other; they therefore fail to reach any synergic effect. The aim is harmonizing and building projects onto each other.
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Understanding the demand side and coordinating the supply side for connected goods and services
17-23Views:117This paper addresses the coordination and innovation issues needed for promoting value added at the rural and regional level. There are two sides to value added: the ability to meet consumer demand, and to identify least cost ways of supplying the demanded goods. Human and social capital plays an important role on both sides. At the municipality level the supply side issues are complex. First, because the production space has far more dimensions than for the single entrepreneur. Second, because the value of some goods and services produced depend on what other goods and services that is available. On the supply side networks are important to solve the coordination issues, while networks for identifying and understanding consumer preferences are important on the demand side. Participation in these two network types compete for the same scarce resource, the time of the inhabitants of a municipality. We address these issues in more detail. A major insight from our work is that in addition to the time conflict, innovation and new information may make it more difficult to maintain coordination networks.
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Current situation and development of the bee-keeping sector in Hungary
71-74Views:177Rural development has become more and more important issue in Hungary since rural areas also contribute to the efficiency of the national economy. Development of rural areas also very important issue in the European Union, which could contribute to the improvement of profitability of small family businesses, higher employment rate in rural areas as well as slow down the migration of people from rural into urban areas. Nowadays the bee-keeping– as one of the activities can provide alternative income for small businesses in rural areas– has become more and more important topic in Hungary. Bee-keeping sector provides income roughly 15 thousands families in Hungary. At the same time it takes important role in the preservation of rural landscape, traditions and their regional values. However, the sector has serious problems, as well (for instance quality issues, competitors on the market, etc.). It can be stated that the market position of Hungarian honey can be preserved through the improvement of quality assurance and product development. These developments can be carried out by the utilization of national and European Union funds.
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Use of coordination spheres in food economics
69-71Views:131The coordination plays central role in the economics. The conventional economic theory looks at the market and enterprise (or hierarchy) as two different, separated manner of coordination of economic goods and services. However the modern organization theory, price theory and institutional economics show that different types (not only market and enterprise, but also several types of hybrid forms) of coordination (or governance structure) necessarily live together in the current economic system. Based on my previous research on the field of regional clusters in the food industry I came to the conclusion that the cluster is one of the spheres where economic coordination can occur.At the same time I pointed out that the ways of coordination can be ordered on an ordinary scale according to its normative or positive nature. I’ve also found that the choice between the coordination spheres (market, enterprise or cluster) is not arbitrary, but instead depends on the interest’s dimension which is represented by the exchange of goods and services in question.
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New tools and opportunities in growth and climate friendly greening for small and medium enterprises in the European Union
25-31Views:158The role of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) is unquestionable in the European economies, while financial opportunities are still inadequate for them. The more than 20 million SMEs play a significant role in European economic growth, innovation and job creation. According to the latest EC Annual Report , SMEs are accounting for 99% of all non-financial enterprises, employing 88.8 million people and generating almost EUR 3.7 tn in added value for our economy. Despite the fact that there is plenty of EU funding available for these SMEs, for certain reasons these funds hardly reach them. But we have to see that the EU supports SMEs by various way, e.g. by grants, regulatory changes, financial instrument, direct funds. On the other hand, SMEs and decision makers realised that the environmental sustainability has to be attached to the economic growth, therefore more and more tools are available for these enterprises. Over the last few years, public institutions, the market, the financial community and non-governmental associations have explicitly demanded that firms improve their environmental performance. One of the greatest opportunities might lay in the Climate- and Energy Strategy till 2030 as 20% of the EU budget is allocated to climate-related actions, however the easy access to finance is still a key question. Does the EU recognise the actual difficulties? Is there a systemic reason behind the absorption problems? Is the EU creating a more businessfriendly environment for SMEs, facilitating access to finance, stimulates the green and sustainable growth and improving access to new markets? The paper analyses the current European situation of the SMEs and the effectiveness of some new tools, which are specially targeting SMEs.
JEL classification: Q18
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