Following the first training course in Feb 2003, UNCRD conducted the second training course on "Community Initiative Approach to Rural Development" for the Republic of Bulgaria, in collaboration with JICA from 10 October to 7 November 2004, with participation of four pairs of officials from the municipal governments of Kazanlak, Karlovo, Ivailovgrad and Malko Tarnovo - all involved in rural development - and two senior officials from the Ministry of Regional Development and Public Works and the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry.

Background

Bulgaria began its democratization policy in 1989, and adopted the new democratic constitution in July of 1991. Prior to that, under the communist leadership, Bulgaria had been in the Soviet Sphere for forty-five years, and with its centrally-planned socialist economy, was promoting industrialization while maintaining its position as an agrarian country. In spite of these efforts, the situation did not improve, and finally the Bulgarian economy collapsed along with the break-up of the Soviet Union. After the transformation in 1989, each administration embarked upon economic reforms, but as this has not brought sufficient benefits, such efforts are continuing. Approximately 15 per cent of the total population now lives in the capital city of Sofia, and are enduring an excessive degree of economic concentration. It is imperative to correct central-and-regional imbalances in income and unemployment as they inhibit the stable economic growth of the country as a whole.

In consideration of central-and-regional disparities, balanced regional development is a critical challenge for the Government of Bulgaria. Responding to the request from Bulgaria, JICA initiated a project called "Regional Economic Development in a Model Area," targeting Kazanlak City as a model area, in order to promote regional economic development, not led by the central government, but by collaboration among regional or local governments, private firms. UNCRD is undertaking the capacity-building component by conducting the three-year training programme for government officials from municipalities and ministries engaged in rural development. In addition to Kazanlak City, officials from Karlovo, Ivailovgrad and Malko Tarnovo municipalities were also invited to the second training course for nation-wide dissemination of knowledge and skills. All these cities have attractive tourism resources such as a festival of roses, interesting historical townscapes and culture, as well as beautiful natural landscape. Since the transformation in 1989, however, a heavy burden of financial resources and personnel has been imposed on respective municipalities and the revitalization of their tourist spots has been derailed. In that sense, the regional development led by collaboration among regional or local governments, private firms, and residents is urgently needed there.

Course Programme

The contents of the training programme consist of lectures, field visits, group discussions, and preparation and presentation of action plans. The lectures covered the following topics and themes: regional and community development in Japan; sustainable tourism; characteristics of community resources and their utilization; and case studies: utilization of historic site and tourism. In relation to the inputs, participants visited tourism promotion sites which effectively utilized the world heritage designation in Shirakawa Village and Hiroshima City while they saw Asuke Town's unique tourism promotion in combination with its welfare measures for the elderly. They also learned from Tomonoura's case in Fukuyama City the difficulty of consensus-building and collaboration between private and public sectors facing common problems.

Achievements of the Course

Through lectures, group discussion, and field study of the Japanese cases, participants obtained useful knowledge in promoting tourism by utilizing available local resources in the rural area and, at the end of the course, each municipality came up with an action plan based on these inputs. All these activities combined to improve the participants' ability to analyse, plan, and coordinate the process of solving existing problems while at the same time enabled them to provide possible solutions to problems they themselves identified.

Group action plans were prepared by each pair of participants from same municipalities after analysis and comparison between the above Japanese cases and those of Bulgaria. The action plans produced by them include "Park Development for Relaxation, Recreation, and Sightseeing in Karlovo City," "Public-Private Partnership for Rose and Oil Refinery Industries in Kazanlak City," " Ivailovgrad City's Integrated Seven Steps for Developing Tourist Resources," and "Sustainable Tourism Development Project in the Rural Village in Malko Tarnovo City." Each action plan contained a challenging proposal to revitalize the respective cities by applying knowledge and skills from Japan's cases as well as making full use of available local resources. It is greatly anticipated that these action plans will be carried out to promote regional economic development.