How Romania develops regions: successful practices for Ukraine

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We continue to study the experience of our Romanian colleagues as part of a study visit together with the Swiss-Ukrainian project “Ukraine Cohesion and Regional Development” (UCORD).

The second day was spent in the city of Piatra Nămţi, the heart of Romania’s North-Eastern region, where the headquarters of the regional development agency Agentia pentru Dezvoltare Regionala Nord-Est is located

During the meeting, the agency’s CEO, Vasile Asandei, shared the history of the agency, which has grown from a small office with four employees to an organization with more than 250 specialists over several decades. Today, the agency manages projects with a total budget of 1.75 billion euros.

Romanian agencies, like Ukrainian ones, are non-governmental non-profit organizations. They started small, but thanks to innovation, strategic planning, and effective communication with partners, they have become important drivers of regional development.

The main areas of the agency’s work include:

  • Regional planning and development programs
  • Support for innovation and clusters
  • Attracting foreign investors
  • Implementation of digitalization projects for small and medium-sized businesses

Special attention was paid to the Rubik Hub platform, which supports startups and brings together more than 300 projects. This initiative helps turn ideas into businesses, enter international markets, and attract investment.

The experience of Romanian colleagues shows that Ukrainian agencies have every chance of achieving similar results in the future.

To do this, it is important to:

  • Use innovative approaches;
  • Build partnerships at different levels;
  • Create development strategies that meet the needs of communities.

The study visit inspires us to find new ideas for the development of Ukraine’s regions. There are still many interesting things ahead – we continue to learn about the best practices of European partners!

The visit was attended by representatives of the Ministry of Communities and Territories Development of Ukraine, the Ministry of Economy of Ukraine, regional development agencies and their supervisory boards from all over the country.

The Swiss-Ukrainian project “Cohesion and Regional Development of Ukraine”, the UCORD Project, is implemented with the support of Switzerland through the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation by NIRAS Sweden AB.