New opportunities for regional development through cross-border cooperation

Ministry of Environmental Protection and Regional Development November 16, 2011

Sustainable Development Strategy of Latvia until 2030

• Approved by Latvian Parliament on June 10, 2010 • Defines long-term: – overall national development objectives – social, economic and environment development priorities and development directions – spatial development perspective

Spatial development perspective of Latvia until 2030

Policy directions for sustainable and balanced territorial development Main aspects:

• accessibility and mobility • settlement as the economic development, human life and work environment • spaces of national interest – unique specific territories

Accessibility

Development directions:

• improvement of external accessibility • improvement of internal accessibility • availability of communications, mass media and data transmission

Settlement structure

Development directions:

• enhancement of the potential and competitiveness of the development centres • mutual co-operation and interaction of urban and rural areas • establishing of functional networks of development centres

Spaces of national interest

Development directions:

• rural development space • Baltic Sea coastal area • Riga metropolis area • Eastern border (EU external border) • outstanding areas of nature, landscape and cultural history

Advantages of territorial approach

• Increased importance of strategic planning at local level – providing support for implementation of local development strategies and local initiatives • Investments are based on the real needs of a particular territory – identified in the development strategy • Opportunity to make complex investments that cover more than one sector • Opportunity to coordinate (in time and space) investments related to different sectors

Urban priority “Polycentric development”

Objective

• To foster polycentric development – strengthening competitiveness, accessibility and attractiveness of the urban environment and city-regions according to integrated local development strategies

Cooperation with Estonia

•

Latvian – Estonian Commission for cross border cooperation

- a significant platform for the determination of the common objectives and solutions for cross border cooperation • Implementation of priorities set within

“Latvian-Estonian Future Cooperation Report”

- initiative of prime ministers •

Estonia-Latvia cross-border cooperation programme

- implemented according to the principles of European Territorial Cooperation promoting sustainable development and economic competitiveness of the Programme area through achieving an integrated and cross-border approach to economic, social and environmental development.

Instruments and forms of bilateral strategic cooperation between Latvia and Russia

•Latvia-Russian Federation

Intergovernmental Commission

for scientific, technological, humanitarian and cultural cooperation (since 2007) •

Working Group on Regional cooperation

– a new format for discussions on interregional and cross-border cooperation (since 2010) •The

declaration

(signed in 2011) on partnership between both countries

for modernization

•Elaboration of the

memorandum of understanding on regional and cross border cooperation

between the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Regional Development of the Republic of Latvia and the Ministry of Regional Development of Russia (draft 2011) •

Agreements on economic cooperation

between the Ministry of Economics of Latvia and the Regional Administrations of Russian Federation (and its implementation through

Action Plans

)

CBC as a platform for realisation of regional policy and strategies

• • •

Estonia-Latvia-Russia cross-border cooperation ENPI Programme

allows to implement joint regional initiatives aimed at: increasing of competitiveness and investment attractiveness of border regions, Improvement of the environmental situation, as well as raising of living standards and well-being of citizens. Important feature of CBC programmes – is a possibility of implementation of joint investment projects with

infrastructure component

.

• • • • •

Motives for CBC:

Overcome

national

peripherality

Promote

economic growth Eliminate barriers

for transit Ensure

equal living conditions

and

better mobility

of border inhabitants

Exchange of best practice

and know-how

Latvia’s regional priorities for cross-border cooperation Vidzeme:

• Development of cross-border clusters and business networks (food processing and wood processing sectors) • Development of labour force, vocational and higher education • Alternative and renewable energy sources • To increase possibilities of health care institutions to offer health services of a higher quality by using information and communication technologies • Cross-sectoral cooperation between culture and social fields

Latvia’s regional priorities for cross-border cooperation

• • • • • •

Latgale:

Tourism (public infrastructure, joint marketing, joint routes and products, cooperation network, increase of number of tourists) Culture (joint activities and events, improvement of infrastructure) Sport (joint competitions, infrastructure) Energy efficiency (heat insulation of public buildings, awareness raising, trainings for local specialists) Transport and logistics (transport info network & system, infrastructure, marketing) Entrepreneurship (business trainings, investments forums and exhibitions, business support network)

Latvia’s regional priorities for cross-border cooperation Riga Region:

•Socio-economic development, including business development: cooperation in knowledge-based entrepreneurship and innovation; cooperation in industrial development, small and medium enterprises networking, market expansion, marketing activities; cooperation in the field of logistics; tourism services and joint tourism product development.

• Environmental and natural resource protection: ecology, nature protection; water resource management improvement; waste recycling and resource efficiency in business.

• Local initiative and local government cooperation.

Thank you for your attention!

Ministry of Environmental Protection and Regional Development