The Voivodship Contract is an agreement to be used in supporting the regional development. In its frames self-government authorities obtain donations from the state budget to support the implementation of their own tasks resulting from voivodship strategies and programmes.
The parties of the contract are: the Council of Ministers and Self-government.
The Voivodship Contract has been based on:
- Act of May 12, 2000 on the regional development support rules,
- Directive of the Council of Ministers of December 28, 2000 on the adoption of the Support Program 2001-2000,
- Resolution No 105 of the Council of Ministers of December 28, 2000 on the adoption of the National Strategy of the Regional Development 2001-2006.
The Voivodship Contract defines the scope, procedure and conditions of tasks implementation resulting from the voivodship programmes, assisted by government and tasks supervised by proper ministers, assisted by self-government authorities and other entitled subjects.
The main purpose of the Voivodship Contract is to support the socio-economic development of the country and its regions for strengthening of competitiveness, growth of living and social standard, economic and territorial cohesion in internal relations as well as with states and regions of the European Community.
The main purpose has been realized by measures resulting from voivodship programmes, which shall concentrate on realisation of aims which are complimentary with 5 priorities defined in the strategy:
Priority 1. Development and modernization of the infrastructure to enhance the competitiveness of voivodships.
Priority 2. Restructuring of the economic base of voivodships and creating conditions of their diversification.
Priority 3. The human resources development.
Priority 4. Supporting the regions threatened by marginalization.
Priority 5. Development of the regional co-operation.
The amount of 4,474.318 million PLN from the state budget has been allocated to support measures and tasks resulting from voivodship programmes for 2001-2003.
In 2004 a new Voivodship Contract will be concluded for one budget year. The legal base of this contract will be the Support Programme 2004 including 2 priorities:
Priority 1. Development and modernization of the infrastructure and the education, dissemination of the culture and welfare payments systems in the region,
Priority 2. Stimulating economic and social initiatives serving to increase the life conditions of inhabitants of the region.
The amount of 1,397.4 million PLN has been allocated in the budget act for 2004 to the realisation of the Support Programme 2004.