2014-2020 STRATEGIC DEVELOPMENT PLAN FOR THE COIMBRA REGION

The “2020 Coimbra Region” Strategy presents a triple challenge.

The first one is an internal challenge, which entails the effective reinforcement of trust bonds between the partners in this diverse territory, based on territorial cohesion policies, and aiming at asserting a region with a strong and competitive identity.

The second is to mobilise the economic, social, cultural and institutional agents to resume the dialogue that provided content and significance to this Strategic Plan, aiming to create a network of actors available for constant reflection on the territory's future and goals, articulating objectives and policies whenever it proves desirable. It is from this dialogue that projects of a supramunicipal scale are more likely to be born, which solidify the region's leading, innovative and inclusive status.

The third challenge is the political affirmation of this Intermunicipal Community and region in the face of a traditional centralist outlook, coordinating efforts with other Central Region Communities, in a spirit of healthy competition and constant political coordination efforts in the face of the polarizing effect of metropolitan areas and the challenges posed by the internationalization of our companies and service-providing institutions.

The above challenges provide the framework for the Strategic Development Plan and the three priority areas of intervention - Management and Valorisation of Endogenous Resources, Innovation and Human Capital, Social Inclusion and Cohesion - framed by 2 cross-sectional areas - Urban Network and Territory Planning and Governance and Administration Efficiency Network.

But it is also important to emphasise that this Plan is only a reference document, to be eventually readjusted in light of new rules emerging under the Regional OP [Operational Programme] and nationwide Thematic Plans, but which should be the guide for a strategy that results from the dynamics generated by the region and its actors as well as by the ambition enabled by their political vision.

President of the Intermunicipal Council of the Coimbra Region IMC