Vital Rural Area, INTERREG IV B North Sea Region
Fourth and final International Policy Forum
26 September 2013 – Sint-Laureins
Key note address by mr Jan Briers, Governor of East Flanders
Mayors of 'het Meetjesland' and local authorities abroad,
Project partners of the Vital Rural Area project
Ladies and gentlemen,
I warmly welcome you in Sint-Laureins, this beautiful village in the north of the Meetjesland area.
Allow me to start with some brief words about this area and the Province of East Flanders.
"Meetjesland" is one of the six touristic areas in our province, located between Ghent and Bruges and bordering the Netherlands. It is well-known for its green landscapes, its rural setting and creeks. I hope you have some time after this conference to walk or bike around and visit the picturesque villages and some of the hidden heritage pearls in this area. Our venue of today – Het Godshuis- is definitely one of them.
When talking from an economic perspective, I have to tell you that our two East Flemish ports are vital: the port of Ghent and the so-called "Waasland port" on the Antwerp left bank, together with its surrounding industry represent together more than one sixth of the total employment in East Flanders. The ports are more than multimodal transport hubs. Some of East Flanders' main enterprises are located there: the ArcelorMittal plant some of you may have visited yesterday, and the automotive industry of Volvo and Honda. Even though these companies are of key importance to the East Flemish economy, our province is mainly characterized by an economy of small and medium sized enterprises. To illustrate this, the agribusiness sector, including food production and agricultural products cover about 31 000 jobs.
For all sectors of our economy and all clusters present in our province – be it biobased economy, biotechnology or broadband technology, we have to look ahead and not just be innovative but also stay innovative. Therefore we need to use to the full all know-how we have. With more than 60 000 students at university level and schools for higher education in East Flanders, we set ourselves the ambition to remain a region of know-how as well.
Of course each region has its specific strengths. In the Meetjesland region you will find a wide range of SMEs but also some larger companies active in the food sector. This fact, combined with regional products and the considerable role tourism plays within this area offers ample opportunity for regional branding.
But when I look at our province, and see how much potential we have on our relatively small surface, I also see many challenges. And a lot of these challenges have to do with the balanced development of both urban and rural and the connections between the two. These are challenges on how to reconcile economic development with connectivity and nature or agriculture, space for housing and the increasing demand for energy. In Flanders, rural areas can be characterized as areas which are fragmented and under significant pressure of urbanization.
In order to tackle problems as the disappearance of local services, decreasing accessibility, a decreasing number of farmers or hidden poverty, the province set up a policy programme for agriculture and rural policy. In brief, our provincial rural policy set itself four objectives: first, we want to strive for rural areas in which it is nice to reside and live in; second, rural areas should also have a sound economic climate; third: we should protect water, nature and the landscape in the countryside, and finally, we also consider the countryside as the ideal place for recreation.
The Meetjesland is one of the two areas in our province which are labeled "LEADER areas". The Local Group implements a development programme to the benefit of the entire area and its inhabitants. In the transnational strand of this programme, the Meetjesland set up a unique cooperation project between young people here and in North-East Friesland in the Netherlands. The project was called "a young view on the countryside". Youngsters in both countries were made aware of their own rural area's potential, and they shared it with each other. In this way, they developed their own marketing campaign by using social media. Another type of Ambassadors for the Meetjesland!
We will look in detail to the "Rural Power Pack" that has been developed in the framework of the Vital Rural Area project. I believe it contains many elements and ambitions that we share and it perfectly fits our provincial policy plans.
But in order to face the challenges our rural or peri-urban areas face, we also look at you, ladies and gentlemen present today from the various EU countries. We need to work together in order to exchange our expertise and develop further common tools.
I consider Vital Rural Area an excellent example of this joint approach. The INTERREG North Sea Programme allows us to set up this cooperation and put intentions and ambitions into real practice.
In the past, we have participated in various other North Sea projects, dealing at times with similar topics and challenges as Vital Rural Area. Let me briefly mention two of them:
The project "URBAL" equally focused on bringing the urban and rural together here in the Meetjesland area. And in the project "SURF" together with our European partners we worked on the development of the sustainable urban fringes from an economic, social and environmental point of view. The governance of these multifunctional areas has been at the core of the project.
Ladies and gentlemen,
We have a long tradition of working together with regions and partners abroad. The first steps have been made precisely here at the border of East Flanders and Zealand, together with our West Flemish colleagues. Indeed over the years –decades even- our European policy grew steadily.
Today, the province of East Flanders is involved in three crossborder INTERREG programmes with France, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom, two transnational ones and the interregional programme.
At the verge of a new programming period, we also look forward to the near future. On this occasion I wish to express our commitment for an even reinforced European policy in the future and our willingness to explore further cooperation opportunities with the regions and partners present here today.
To conclude, I particularly wish to address also the pupils present from Eeklo. I hope you, adults of tomorrow, will also be inspired by this event. I hope it will broaden your mind and that one day, you will have your own international experience.
Ladies and gentlemen,
We should not forget that what brings projects alive is the people who are part of it. And projects like Vital Rural Area bring people together, regardless of nationalities or cultural backgrounds. You share the same goal. This is the secret of a successful project.
I wish to congratulate you all with the success of this final International Policy forum and the results of the Vital Rural area project.
Thank you.