Bucharest-Ilfov Regional Development Agency (ADRBI) is a non-profit organization, governed by public law, established in 1999 for public utility in the Bucharest-Ilfov region, Romania, which has a population of 2,12 million inhabitants (July 2018) and an area of 1,804 km².
In the framework of regional development strategies, the Agency plays the main role as policy maker and implementer of the specific policies and programmes being correlated both with the priorities of Romania and in line with the EU socio-economic cohesion objectives.
Similar to other European regions, the regional development policy in Bucharest – Ilfov Region aims for balanced and sustainable economic development, international competitiveness of SMEs and diminution of the socio-economic gap between Romania and other EU members.
The Agency’s main objective is to develop the region by creating more jobs and economic development. In this respect, the activities that are covered by ADRBI are related to the implementation of European funded projects, being the Intermediate Body for the implementation of Regional Operational Programme 2014-2020 – and further on for 2021-2027.
The re-emergence of the Romanian agricultural sector continues to provide employment and to contribute to the national economy. However, the agricultural sector is one of the highest emitters of C02, and this contributes to the pollution of the whole territory. Even if, at the region level, there is an important potential to produce renewable energy, an ascertainment supported by the presence of a large number of players in this market, so far there is no coordinated and programmed relation between private companies operating in the agricultural field and use or production of the necessary amount of energy from renewable sources for the proper development of the farm activities. In this respect, the policy instrument needs to be improved by defining concrete strands of activity and supporting specific initiatives which will help SMEs (and SMEs within specific agricultural and rural sectors) to harness opportunities linked to the low carbon economy, more precisely investments in renewable energies.
Participation in AgroRES project represents a huge opportunity for the project team to elevate the awareness level within the Bucharest-Ilfov region regarding the benefits of using renewable energy, both in terms of environmental protection and development of the agricultural sector – to European standards. Thus, in order to increase the professional capacity of the project team and of the relevant stakeholders, participation in policy learning events and exchange of experience activities shall be a prerequisite made to determine close contact with the best practices identified in more developed regions of the European Union, practices that could be transferred to Bucharest-Ilfov Region. The self-assessment process of the renewable energy resources and utilization situation shall be the cornerstone for the elaboration of a realistic action plan designed to identify, develop and implement policy instrument improvement measures – in this case the Regional Operational Program. Its optimization will lead, in fact, to the encouragement of investments in renewable energy production systems in the mentioned sector, thus contributing to the reduction of the carbon footprint generated, in accordance with the objectives of the European Union in the field.
