RURAL DEVELOPMENT IN ROMANIA. OPPORTUNITIES AND DIFFICULTIES

The basic objective of this work is to present and analyze the major difficulties faced by the economic development of rural areas . Secondly, the paper examines the opportunities that can be exploited to reduce disparities between rural and urban spheres. One of the main features of the Romanian society is a big gap between the level of economic development in urban and in rural areas. Unfortunately, this gap is a feature of a less competitive economic systems and is a great hindrance to the development of overall national economy. This is why one of the fundamental priorities of government policy should be rural development. To support our argument we will analyze and interpret available statistical data from the point of view of the methods provided by the contemporary theory of development. All considerations presented in the paper converge to the conclusion that economic disparities between the two spheres of the economic system can be reduced to a acceptable level by government policies to stimulate private investment, by improving public infrastructure and through a better allocation of resources for education and health. In these circumstances, the Romanian agricultural sector could exploit its huge potential