Local Action Group (Lag) – Future Of Regional And Rural Development

Local Action Groups (hereinafter referred to as LAG) are organizations that are established on the initiative of local governments, entrepreneurs, civil association and OPGs within certain area of the local community and in accordance with the EU LEADER program as the relevant measure for the implementation of the objectives and activities of the LAGs. The main objective of LAGs is the creation of local partnerships, connecting organizations from public, civil and economic sectors and to coordinate with these organizations in order to establish local development strategies which will result in creation of strategic framework for growth and community development relevant for LAG Policies and measures which are emanated from the objectives, activities and results of each LAG will be main subject of the paper entitled "Local Action Group - future of regional and rural development." Throughout this document I will show importance of LAG for regional and rural development, explain relevance of LAG for future growth and development of the region as leader organization in the process of economic, public and civil sector networking which is one of the main difficulties in current situation in Croatia. LAG will therefore have the opportunity to be the bearer of many changes which will result in organized market of labour, goods, services and capital. The main result of such activities will be rural and regional development, which will be based on balanced development of economic, environmental and social potential of the community, with an emphasis on the individual, in so-called "bottom-up" approach. For this reason I believe that the future of regional and rural development should be based on implementation of LAGs policy. I will support this with several examples of cases where the true value and potential of LAGs in the community are still not recognized and properly valuated.