Regional Economic Development Agency (RED)

The Regional Economic Development Agency was established as part of the Regional Management Reform, as a partnership development device with a territorial-based approach, aiming to develop and manage regional economic potentials, in especially under-developed regions, focusing on two main outputs: new jobs creation and increased economic leverage for the regional and local economies with direct beneficiaries, municipalities. RED strategic model is to encourage the creation of economic partnerships between (several) local government units, while simultaneously coordinating between the central government’s existing programs, international donor programs and private sector investments, in specific territorial-based development projects, with tangible outputs (employment and income growth), in specific areas, according to the proposals provided by the regional development and operational programs (RDOP), different donors or different local government units. RED concept is about integrating and coordinating different development programs and stakeholders in all multi-governance levels, in developing and building new economic activities, within specific target locations, in order to create new employment, to induce the economies of scale in the underdeveloped regions, while also providing more value to the public assets and natural and human resources that each region may hold within their territories. RED model is adapted in full from the very successful model of WiBAG Company , owned 100% by the Government of Burgenland, Austria, which has successfully managed a portfolio of over four billion euro in developing projects, making Burgenland a very fast growing development cluster and a European success story. WiBAG has been also very competent and an extremely helpful coordinator between EU RED funding and the private sector in Burgenland, with an absorption rate of over 99.7% (2015). This is exactly the role that RED will facilitate in the following years, assisting underdeveloped regions and municipalities to partner and prepare reliable projects for the future EU funds. Moreover this concept is in line with the recent recommendations of the Commissioner J. Hahn , who states that: “we call for a new compact between the European institutions and economic and social actors; and between different levels of power – national, regional and local”. Additionally, the Regional Management Reform that the Government of Albania is currently undertaking, is in line with the preparation of the country toward the Cohesion Policy of the European Union, with the institutional requirements of the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and Chapter 22 “Regional policy and coordination of structural instruments”. RED is designed to operate through three Main Programs, where the central one is the Economic Locations (Development and Management) Program (P2). This is the territorial based program, combining different projects and needs, in order to create an Economic Development Cluster, within a specific area with growth potentials, which might be the main economic drive of that specific region. Meanwhile the Project Preparation (P1) and the Financial Support Programs (P3) are supportive to the Economic Locations Program, combining the relevant technical assistance and project development and management requirements, with the different pool of funds from the state budget, the regional development fund, as well as local government, donor and even private funds.