Regional Differences and Regional Planning of Economic Activities in Bosnia and Herzegovina - Sustainable Development in Mountain Regions: Southeastern Europe - page 186

By recognising the understanding of regional development as natural-geographic
and social-geographic process of transformation of regional structures, new
research approaches developed, based on bigger number of indicators for measur-
ing the development of spatial units. Among them, a distinguished place belongs to
systemic approach and multi-regional plans, on which current regional development
in Bosnia and Herzegovina is substantially grounded.
As regional development is, first of all, manifested by unequal spatial distribu-
tion of population and activities, function of work is particularly important as an
indicator of differences in development of the spatial units of the same type. It is
even more important because it is, at the same time, a basic factor of spatial plans
and, especially of their natural-geographic characteristics. Namely, by connecting
the active population and natural resources in process of their economic evaluation,
the oriented work is directly seen in dynamics, at the level of economic development
of spatial plans. An objective of this chapter was to determine regional differences
in Bosnia and Herzegovina against the European Union.
15.2 Methodology of Research
Regional differences and regional planning of economic activities in Bosnia and
Herzegovina have been analysed in the chapter. Within that, development of eco-
nomic activities as an indicator of the differences in modern regional development
of Bosnia and Herzegovina was more closely discussed. The data on population
numbers, share of investments, share of active population and share of employ-
ment, the reached level of socio-economic transition, respectively structure of work,
share of employed people in activities of the primary, secondary and tertiary sec-
tor, were used as the indicators of polarised development. Regional development
of Bosnia and Herzegovina was analysed at two levels of spatial analysis. The first
one is existing regional structure, and the second is an envisaged regional structure
against the European Union. Suitability of regional structure as spatial plans for
exploring the regional development was determined, first of all, by the fact that the
regions are spatial units of medium rank of managing-territorial hierarchy and their
inclusion mainly corresponds to notion of nodal-functional regions. Hence they are
proportionally stable analytical units for statistical research and, at the same time,
spatially planned units of regional coordination. It should be noted that polarisation
and regional development were discussed in this chapter from natural-geographic
and social- geographic point of view, which means that its objective is not quantifi-
cation of differences in social-economic development, but connection of relevant
developments of spatial plans ( Cerne, 2005 , p. 24).
15.3 Socio-economic Transformation and Regional Development
of Bosnia and Herzegovina since the Mid-20th Century
The most dynamical economic development of Bosnia and Herzegovina are ongoing
under influence of industrialisation after the Second World War. Industrialisation of
the country was followed by transformation of the overall economy and population,