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In the European Union there’s a development model with many centres, where strong metropolitan areas and those around larger cities are key drivers of competitiveness.
Such examples can be observed in Northwest Europe, compared with Eastern and Southern Europe, where this is not valid, according to the Third Edition of the Index of Regional Competitiveness for 263 EU regions, for 2016.
The gap between the capital region and other regions is particularly wide in some countries, for example, Romania, Greece, Slovakia, Bulgaria and France. A big gap between the capital region and the rest of the country is generally a reason for concern as it puts substantial pressure on the capital region while it may leave some of the resources in other regions underutilised.
In Bulgaria, for example, the proximity to the capital – Sofia, is not sufficient grounds for neighbouring North region out of the latest places in EU development.
Under the Regional Competitiveness European Commission understands the ability of a region to offer attractive and sustainable environment for businesses and local residents.
If for 2016, the Southwest region with centre Sofia is ranked on 207th out of 263 regions in the EU, the Northwest region, located only a few kilometres beyond Stara Planina is on 258th place. According to the purchasing power per capita, the Northwest region is last in the entire European Union. It ranks 263rd with an indicator which is 29% of the average for all 28 EU countries.
Where does Sofia standing the Southwest region?
The RCI is composed of 11 pillars that describe the different aspects of competitiveness. They are classified into three groups: Basic, Efficiency and Innovation. The Basic group includes five pillars: (1) Institutions; (2) Macroeconomic Stability; (3) Infrastructure; (4) Health; and (5) Basic Education. These represent the key basic drivers of all types of economies.
According to the data, the most competitive Bulgarian region (South) indicate that it is on 207th place in the overall index, ranks 187th by GDP per capita and the purchasing ability of the population is 75% of the EU average.
Its strengths are also education and training (88th of 263), business sophistication (103), innovation (131) and efficiency of the labour market (152).
According to the authors of the study, areas which are similar to the Southwest region of Bulgaria include Murcia, Madeira and Castilla-La Mancha Spain, the French islands of Martinique and Guadeloupe in the Caribbean and South Yorkshire and Cornwall on the UK.
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