“We are making significant efforts to compensate for the initial delays in the implementation of the Regional Development Program 2021-2027 (RDP 2021-2027). Directing all available resources to the program will guarantee the achievement of the set goals and the real impact on the regions of the country.“ This was stated by the Minister of Regional Development and Public Works Nikolay Naydenov, who opened a final national event on the topic of “Promoting Sustainable Regional Development through Integrated Investments“.
The forum will report on the results of the agreement between the World Bank and the Ministry of Regional Development and Public Works to provide technical support for building the capacity of regional and local stakeholders to implement sustainable and integrated approaches to regional development. Among the participants are representatives of the World Bank, the European Commission, deputy ministers and experts from the state administration, mayors of municipalities, regional governors, etc. The project covers over 120 municipalities in the country, and its results will benefit about 80% of the population.
Minister Naydenov highly appreciated the approach to integrated territorial investments (ITI) in the regions, which is being implemented for the first time in Bulgaria. Through it, the implementation of a given priority project receives funding from five other European programs, in addition to the RDP, which leads to better results. Over 1.8 billion euros are available for the implementation of integrated territorial investments from the RDP 2021-2027. The remaining programs - “Human Resources Development“, “Research, Innovation and Digitalization for Smart Transformation“, “Education“, “Innovation and Competitiveness in Enterprises“ and “Environment“, provide up to 10% of their budgets for integrated activities.
The Regional Development Councils, which include representatives of local authorities and communities, play a key role in the selection and approval of projects. The MRDPW is ready to announce the application guidelines and invite municipalities with approved concepts to conclude contracts under the second procedure, which has a budget of nearly 503 million euros. Thanks to integrated investments, mayors are no longer competitors for European funding, but work in partnership - projects and measures are proposed to support entire regions, not specific municipalities.
Jörg Lackenbauer from the EC's DG “Regional and Urban Policy“ pointed out that the concept of integrated territorial investments is new for Bulgaria and is being implemented for the first time in the period 2021-2027 with a budget of nearly 2 billion euros only under the “Regional Development“ Program. “The ITI approach is relatively complex to implement. This requires good coordination between the different levels and participants, and it is precisely because of these challenges that technical assistance was needed. The World Bank team has done incredibly important work in Bulgaria over the past few years, focusing on building the capacity of local and regional stakeholders and implementing sustainable and integrated approaches to regional development,“ he noted.
The World Bank Country Manager for Bulgaria, Jason Pelmar, emphasized that the goal of the project team was to create measures to address economic and demographic challenges at the regional and local levels, as well as to promote greater integration and strengthen institutional capacity for integrated territorial development. “The priorities were to increase the quality of strategies, plans and projects, while accelerating implementation through stronger partnerships and integrated approaches at the regional and local levels. By providing practical tools, targeted training and a platform for the exchange of experiences between municipalities, we contributed to the ability of local authorities to learn and adapt. The results of the survey show that we have over 90% satisfaction with the usefulness and networking opportunities that these trainings provide. The expected results of these trainings include improving regional knowledge, increased interaction between ITI partners and identifying key success factors for sustainable integrated development,“ he commented.
Fouad Malkawi from the World Bank pointed out that many settlements in the country were visited and that all stakeholders were involved in identifying the challenges faced by some regions.
The integrated territorial investment approach will continue to be applied in the next programming period 2028-2034.