NDP
Project participants: Nagy Katalin, Bartha Attila, Bara Zoltán and Szörfi Béla.
Human Development Report, Slovakia and Hungary Draft Socio-Economic Portrait of Eastern Slovakia and Hungary Chapter II.
In the frame of Chapter II an overall socio-economic portrait of Eastern Slovakia and Northern Hungary will be drawn with the purpose of pointing at major reasons of lagging behind, of finding alternative scenarios which would help to alter the long term trend of economic and social development and foster a process of catching up, of seeking the possible ways of cooperation between local economic and social participants as well as between the two regions. In line with the goals of UNDP’s Human Development Report Envisioning Prosperity in Eastern Slovakia and Hungary the following chapter should contribute to an integrated analysis of the regional development, social exclusion, decentralisation, post-EU accession opportunities, environmental management, and corporate social responsibility dimensions of eastern Hungary’s and Slovakia’s development challenges. In the course of the transition despite of a non-negligible catching up at macro-level, regional differences deepened, and in case of some micro-regions, or social strata the danger of marginalisation becomes more marked. In case of Hungary as well as Slovakia the capital and the surrounding regions show the most rapid development, whilst in the Eastern parts of the countries backwardness is still characteristic.