Regional planning : an experiment in Maltese public administration

Abstract

This project investigates the relevance of regional planning for Malta using the Regional Socio-Economic Development Plan for the South of Malta as a case study. The report analyses the concept of regional planning and the way it was developed between 1997 and 1998 in Malta by the Planning Council when coordinating the Regional Socio-Economic Development Plan for the South of Malta. This project reviews a range of literature contributions on this subject to provide a basis for analysis and discussion of the specific regional planning initiative in Malta. The project identifies a framework of indicators that characterize regional planning. On this basis, it then analyses various aspects of the Regional Socio-Economic Development Plan for the South of Malta, and concludes that the Plan has been effective in bringing about a regional approach only in a limited way. This is accounted for mainly by the absence of administrative and legal status at the regional level. Continuation of the Plan's coordination could have ascribed greater autonomy to the region's development, had the Plan also been provided with financial resources and administrative structures. While these shortcomings restricted the possible outcomes of the Plan, its process nevertheless succeeded in achieving a regional perspective to local problems. The reasons why such a regional approach was never instituted remains, however, debatable.