engleski

Problems in Croatia's regional development : how to proceed?

The basic issue in the regional development of Croatia is its marked regional imbalance. In the context of regionalization, the Republic of Croatia is divided into 20 counties and the City of Zagreb. Guided by such regional organization, counties in Croatia are frequently equated with regions, which is also the case in this paper. The reason for this is that the counties have within their scope of work activities of regional significance, related to education, health care, welfare, etc. The paper aims to elaborate on the differences in the level of development between regions in Croatia, as this is one of the crucial problems that the country has been struggling with. The state of imbalance persists due to the lack of adequate regional policy and relevant strategy of regional development, i.e. the legislative framework for conducting regional policy is fragmented. The performed analysis of 21 Croatian regions indicates their differences in terms of economic development, unemployment, competitiveness, demographics, etc. The city of Zagreb as the capital and the surrounding region are ranked at or near the top in almost all the indicators, whereas the Eastern part of Croatia is underdeveloped and lags behind the other regions (the differences in some indicators amount to the ratio 3:1). For this reason, Osijek-Baranja County is a good example to illustrate the aberration from the national average in many areas that are crucial for development. The importance of regional issues in Croatia is especially emphasized in the context of EU accession, which is the country's pressing concern. Therefore, Croatia needs to set up a concise regulatory framework for a preventive, proactive and successful regional policy. Conducting such a policy can bring faster growth and development not only in the observed area, but also in the country as a whole, or its wider environment.

regional policy; regional development; disparities in Croatian regions; competitiveness of Croatian regions

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