ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT IN THE WESTERN BALKAN REGION

In recent years, the World Bank’s Environmentally and Socially Sustainable Development Department, has published some reports covering most part of the Western Balkan countries, in collaboration with the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the Directorate General of the European Commission for Rural Development. These reports clearly present the obstacles to economic competitiveness, carefully examine public expenditures, diagnose key policy challenges and suggest strategic objectives and priorities in order to move forward. This paper aims at providing an overarching analysis in view of the challenges facing the region’s policy makers and the strategies for transforming, reorganizing and modernizing different economic sectors, which in time will result in a new economic growth and a healthy rural sector. This paper comes at a critical time for the Western Balkan region. While its countries are experiencing an overall healthy growth, agriculture and rural areas are falling behind, trade deficits are constantly expanding, climate change is becoming more and more of a problem and many rural workers are being pushed to urban areas. The need to meet EU standards while addressing the food and financial crisis, are powerful external policies to improve and give a boost to the agricultural policy.