Social Capital and Socio Economic Development the case of Romania’s NW and NE Region PH.D Elena Porumb BABEŞ-BOLYAI UNIVERSITY CLUJ NAPOCA, ROMANIA AAG Conference Boston MA April 2008 April AAG Boston MA

April AAG Boston MA2 European Regional Policy National Strategic Reference Framework NSRF Intervention of the socio- economical parts O.P. ESF O.P. ERDF O.P. ERDF + Cohesion Fund Approval of the Operational Programmes European Regional Policy Commission presentation Negotiations with the European Commission Services National Strategic Document

April AAG Boston MA3 Frame of Regional Planning

April AAG Boston MA4 Regions in Romania

April AAG Boston MA5 Fig. 1Counties of the North-West Region Counties of the NW Region?

April AAG Boston MA6 the main characteristics correspond to the national average level; the only Pilot project in Regional Development Policy (RDP) at regional level; corporate social responsibility and community-oriented context; networks for regional development policy cooperation through the public/ private/ NGO’s partnership evolution; favourable arena for debating conceptual and best practices in RDP; labour force adequate for knowledge-based economy and new technologies ( students); tradition for multi-cultural, ethnicity and religiosity Why the NW Region?

April AAG Boston MA7 Network of institutions Total institutions: 77 EU-level: 1 Central administration: 10 Regional administration: 3 Local administration: 24 Private institutions: 39

April AAG Boston MA8 Freeman’s Degree Centrality Measures: Network Centralization = 21.74% Heterogeneity = 2.50%. Normalized = 1.21% Network Centralization Index = 24.14% Network centrality

April AAG Boston MA9 Metric MDS

April AAG Boston MA10 SNA county variation Cluj CountySălaj County

April AAG Boston MA11 the main characteristics correspond to the national average level; favourable institutional and legislative framework for regional development policy; strong emphasize on social responsibility; networks for regional development policy cooperation; qualified labour force adequate for knowledge-based economy; regional development strategy in close relation with strengthening the social cohesion; the only region with positive natural increase (about 1.0‰) Why the NE Region?

April AAG Boston MA12 NE Region

April AAG Boston MA13 Network of institutions Total institutions: 33 EU-level: 1 Central administration: 6 Regional administration: 4 Local administration: 11 Private institutions: 11

April AAG Boston MA14 Freeman’s Degree Centrality Measures: Network Centralization = 39.08% Heterogeneity = 5.56%. Normalized = 2.60% Network centrality

April AAG Boston MA15 Metric MDS

April AAG Boston MA16 Social capital

April AAG Boston MA17 EU Values Orientation

April AAG Boston MA18 Comparison between regions

April AAG Boston MA19 Comparison between regions

April AAG Boston MA20 Comparison between regions

April AAG Boston MA21 Comparison between regions

April AAG Boston MA22 Connection GDP – EU trust

April AAG Boston MA23 NW Regional Programming

April AAG Boston MA24 NW Region – economic structure

April AAG Boston MA25 NW Region – unemployment rate

April AAG Boston MA26 Local authorities and governmental agencies: Characteristics: Administrative conflict, insufficient use of funding opportunities. Interests and motivation: Getting more autonomy; access to more funding opportunities Potential and type of power: Authority power; community actions catalyst; future control of EU funds Implications and conclusions: Enhancement of an articulate strategy for local development Patterns of interest intermediation-representation

April AAG Boston MA27 Companies Characteristics: Low interest in marketing approach and use of intangible resources Interests and motivation: Strategic alliances and facilities (technological clusters) Potential and type of power: Resource management power (HR brands, marketing) Implications and conclusions: Development of competitive marketing mix and PR strategy; Lobby activities Patterns of interest intermediation-representation

April AAG Boston MA28 Local and Foreign Investors Characteristics: Low technologic transfer and added value; low investment/investor Interests and motivation: More facilities; economic and administrative stability Potential and type of power: Financial power Implications and conclusions: Development of networks (local authorities and foreign investors) Patterns of interest intermediation-representation

April AAG Boston MA29 Cultural and Academic Institutions Characteristics: Strong multicultural institutions; lack of sufficient and multiple funding Interests and motivation: Join cultural networks, co-organisation of scientific, cultural and educational events Potential and type of power: Information and knowledge power, catalyst power. A major feature of Cluj identity and image Implications and conclusions: Articulation of a strategic perspective based on European core values Patterns of interest intermediation-representation

April AAG Boston MA30 Professional Associations Characteristics: not sufficiently active in networking Interests and motivation: Professional culture Potential and type of power: Expert and relation power Implications and conclusions: Training performance Patterns of interest intermediation-representation

Best Practices in Romania Social Capital and Civil Society 2.1. Regional impact on civil society development Figure 6 The relationship between the number of NGOs in 1998 (*1000/total population) and the proportion of those who gave 1% in 2004 (*1000/total population) at the county level. April AAG Boston MA

- The need of helping the SME, the promotion of tourism, the improvement of the environment contributing to the improvement of region image for the potentials Romanian and foreign investors - Promotion the cooperation between strategic investors and local businesses from region - create new professions at the same level of the world evolution - encourage the development of interregional and international economical relationships - high development potential in the research- development- innovation field - varied tourist potential - existence of foreign investors on the labor market - better paid jobs - the jobs offer is higher then the jobs demanding - encouragement of local initiatives attract the foreign investors by offering financial stimulations as a financial source of implementing improvement of economical policy of the region. The North- Eastern Region The North West Region Conclusions April AAG Boston MA

The North- Eastern Region The Private Initiative Dynamic - Early industrial development (easy industry, automobile industry, electrotechnics etc.) - good environment for the production foreign investments - the lack of development infrastructure - the development of tourism, general services, transports, professional services. - not adapted economy structure - low economical productivity and efficiency - the main activity: agriculture - decreasing trend of private initiative - reduced weigh of SME in the production and services sectors - low quality of serviced delivered to population The North West Region April AAG Boston MA

- The state sustains some measures which will end to “increase the life standard of community and the sustainable development of the Region” - Strategic directions: The development of businesses and entrepreneurship; the development of human resources; the promotion of the potential development of the Region - Increased weight of population with law training level - general development of the region - good business environment - competitive economical spirit - lots of foreign entrepreneurs - high trained level of population - trained labor forced - the region unemployment rate is lower than the national one. The North- Eastern Region The Western Region Conclusions: April AAG Boston MA

April AAG Boston MA35

ARC as relationships broker Figure 7: Overview of Arc’s approach and areas of work April AAG Boston MA

A)Between nonprofits involved in community fundraising - exploring opportunities for creating a more structured space for interaction and common action as part of a net- work of organizations involved in community fundraising. B) Between nonprofits and businesses interested in supporting a certain field of work – identifzing common interests such as – at national level preventing measures for traffic safety, interest of national grant-making and community development organizations to support long-term reconstruction process in communities affected by floods in 2005 C) At the level of four local communities involved in community foundations development pilot program - test need and feasibility of a shared and transparent framework for mobili- zing community resources, based on involvement of key stakeholders – NGOs, companies and government. April AAG Boston MA

April AAG Boston MA38Conclusions Administrative absorption capacity is influenced by:  quality of the programming documents: OP, PC, manuals for applicants;  quality of the information campaigns regarding funding possibilities;  the existence of a project pipeline;  capacity to carry out the implementation process per se at MA/IB level; this involves the existence of appropriate procedures and the necessary human resources

Concluding remarks no clear differences between old, new, and the former communist countries, with one important exception. length of democratic rule does not have a significant effect on the quality of social participation. as a former communist country Romania - caught in the middle in the debates on social capital in this part of the world. differences in social capital might be expected according to age groups as different gene-rations have different resources available to them., or to social and educational groups – poorer communities rely on the intense informal relationships associated with bonding social capital, while wealthier communities are associated with more formal organisational participation. April AAG Boston MA

April AAG Boston MA40Conclusions The current institutional framework does not admit/legitimise specific attributions, competences or responsibilities for regional development at regional level  Major difficulties for local/regional communities in transposing into practice a development vision (the development is the result of individual, separate actions) ;  Difficulties in developing and sustaining projects with regional impact and interest;