Page 154 - Proceeding 2015

FLORESCU Margareta and POTCOVARU Ana-Mădălina
FAMP
CCASP LOCAL DEVELOPMENT’S INFLUENCE ON THE FREEDOM OF THE DECISION-MAKING PROCESS
IN LOCAL COLLECTIVITIES IN ROMANIA

and energy, economic development, human resources and creating a society with a high quality of life

(including healthcare, sports or culture) and tourism.

Overall, Bistrita is one of the few well positioned and developed medium cities in Romania, having the
potential to further thrive in a competitive economy and an open market with its industrial products being

exported all over the European Union and even further away in Asia or South America.

Giurgiu is the main city of Giurgiu county, one of the five poorest counties in Romania, and has a
population of around 62.000 people or approximately one quarter of the cunty’s population.

The city’s economy relies mostly on farming, industry and trade, although the agriculture is the main

industry with over half the workforce being involved in this sector. The county in particular is covered by
forests and arable land, while in the norh there are some oil and natural gas deposits that are being
exploited. Also, Giurgiu is ne of the most important Danube ports in the country, using this as a

geostrategic advantage for the city becouse is access route for different cargo being transported towards
Western Europe or imported good being shipped in the country, especially for Bucharest as the final

destination point (Alexandrescu, 2010).

Based on the information found on the city hall's website, there is a development strategy plan available PROCEEDINGS OF THE 11 TH ADMINISTRATION AND PUBLIC MANAGEMENT INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ”Strategic Management for Local Communities” 30 th – 31 st October 2015 Bucharest
for the period from 2014-2020, but there are only a few investments plans based on the funding received

from the European Union, while the rest of the measures are only general ones, like improving the
infrastructure, the accesibility, environmental programmes, the economy in general, developing the
tourism and the public administration, without a certain pillar on which the community can develop and

evolve. The lack of a clear development strategy plan might be a bad signal for some investors, unable
to make an investment plan on medium and long time (Buciuta, 2014).

Vaslui, one of Romania’s eastern cities is also one of the poorest in the country, having the lowest

GDP/inhabitant (Panaete, 2014). After the fall of the communist regime in 1989, almost the entire county\s
industries collapsed one by one, nowadays only ”Rulmenti Barlad” running as the most notable example.
Since then, only the agriculture remained asa the prominent sector which employs the bulk of the

workforce with Vaslui also having significant activity in services sector, being the most important city and
residence of Vaslui county.

Like most medium and large cities in the country, after the country’s admission to the EU, Vaslui

developed a development plan in order to attract foreign investment, but also European structural funds,
vital for the city’s economy. Therefore, ”Integrated Urban Development Plan of Vaslui Municipality” was
made, with the general objective to implement the concept of ecological transport backbone of the city for

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