Suchergebnisse

The institutionalism of the Hungarian regional development is way ahead of its Regional Development Act, which was introduced in 1996, and the democratic transformation of 1989, but the regional development as we understand it nowadays takes in account the local actors' needs and goals since the middle of the 1990s. The most significant regional development measure from the two years after the democratic transformation was the external cabinet meeting. When the government sensed some kind of crisis in one region, it held an external cabinet meeting, where and when they made a measure package to handle the regional crises, but these measures were only ad hoc measures in most of the cases. The central governmental measures only got a few good results, which made the government include local actors in the decision making process. Including the local actors, and in some way putting the local level above the regional level created an unsuccessful result with regards to the governmental regional development politics. The legislators' intention with the Regional Development Act of 1996 was to insure the publicity of the controlling and planning systems, the enforcement of the democratic values, and the establishment of the complex conditions with regards to the planning, controlling, distribution and finance in the field of regional politics. In 2011 with an amendment of the above mentioned act the lawmakers terminated the local level development councils and by the 1st of January, 2012 these tasks went under the authority of the county governments and the county-cities.

Energy is one of the key tools of Russian geopolitical advocacy that Russia can still use efficiently through the energy supply systems built up after WWII and that is still unavoidable. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the advocacy role of the Russian state has decreased however it has never completely lost its influence on the energy sector and thereby on the countries depending on it. We can speak about the active use of energy relations as a tool of political advocacy again since 2006, nonetheless we cannot observe a complete lack of use of these tools between 1990 and 2006 either. The former Soviet republics and the former satellite countries were the targets of these actions, which illustrates the long-term effects of energy dependency systems developed between 1945 and 1990. The 2006 Russian-Ukrainian conflict was the first, when Russia did not only threaten with but actually reduced the amount of natural gas transported. During the 2006 and the 2009 Russian-Ukrainian conflicts, it became clear that Russia actually uses limitation of supply and price policy pressure and not only as a means of threat in order to enforce its political interests, even accepting its negative consequences.

The aim of this study is to consider the main factors affecting the industrial policy in Central and Eastern European Countries (CEECs) by elucidating the issues such as; the connection between competitiveness and industrial policy, innovation, manufacturing, green growth and environment. The objective is to inspire thought in the reader and to highlight the necessity for a new industrial policy, which considers regional differences and specializations in the catching up economies of the CEECs. The ultimate question is what kind of industrial policy development is required in the CEECs in the future that could enable an even more successful catching up, or convergence, with the Western economies. This study includes an analysis of the countries that have been more successful in transition. A measurement was made of the export market shares as well as the industrial structure (primarily in manufacturing). The first step towards accomplishing this task was to examine the export competitiveness of CEECs, the concept of export competitiveness, and the role of exports in competitiveness-oriented growth strategies during the financial crisis. The question was how the effectiveness of policies that enhance export competitiveness could be improved in these countries. The second step was to examine and differentiate the variety of industrial politics in the CEECs, with special emphasis on tools used in order to promote incoming foreign direct investment and technological development. The third step was an assessment of CEECs innovation and R&D policies, and their linkages with competitiveness, for a better understanding of future options in the CEECs. It is outside the scope of this study to formulate a new industrial policy for certain countries since there is a wide variation in the level of development, workforce structure and industrial specialization of the countries examined in this study. Making predictions that are generally applicable to all member countries of the European Union (EU) is not possible in the international economic environment of June 2013. This study highlights that there is a need for a country specific industrial policy for each member country. During the development of industrial policy, the decision makers of each country must make complex decisions which consider all past and current economic factors. It is the intention of this study to inspire deeper, new ways of thinking about industrial policies in the CEECs.

The Hungarian Government decided on the establishment of the South Transdanubian Economic Development Zone. The identification of the areas formed by clustering settlements of similar features will help better target development goals and funds to the region. The development concepts of the counties (forming the region) were reviewed and each of the 656 settlements of the region were put into categories. The categories were formed according to the county concepts; classification of the space followed all of the area classifications mentioned in them: development goals, priorities, strategic categories or sectoral targets. It has been found that 291 settlements have not been targeted by the county concepts at all. Further 177 ones are classified as deprived areas either because of their peripheral situation or their underdevelopment status by law. 62 settlements are mentioned as ones to be targeted with either economic development programmes or classified as growth zones. The latter category consists of 26 settlements, which are either growth, industrial, innovative or logistic centres according to the development concepts. Tourism related developments are targeted and may be outbreak points in 176 settlements. The threat to the development of rural areas due to shrinking medium sized cities must be addressed. Our review and classification of South Transdanubian Region's settlements adds the value of the multifaceted approach through the application of the county development concepts.