Mezei István: Urban development in Slovakia (Pécs-Somorja, 2010)
5. Regional organization in Slovakia
Regional development role of towns GDP figures, these differences become quite distinct. According to GDP per capita, the Bratislava region produces twice as much as the national average (17,445 Euros per person), while the Prešov region produces the lowest value (4,193 Euros per person). However, all this can also be interpreted in a different way: the whole of the Košice region owes its position near the Slovak average to the economic performance of the city Košice, while in the parts of the region outside the city economic performance is much lower. It is also true of the other regions that it is first of all the economic performance of the regional centre and some other towns of the region that is responsible for the favourable or unfavourable level of the region as a whole. Therefore we may say that the regions marked out by the state will do not provide a real picture of the actual regional division of the country, because some cities or districts with outstanding performances raise the average of the region. 5. 3 Regional development role of towns Like in other countries, in Slovakia regional differences result in a development pattern independent of the regional division. In some chapters above we have already mentioned the peak points of this pattern, i.e. cities and towns that are highly developed both in an economic and a social sense. The Regional Development Conception of Slovakia, which was published by the government in 2001, also emphasizes the importance of cities and towns when it suggests that settlement groups should be developed according to gravitation areas. These might be neighbouring cities and towns, such as Bratislava and Trnava (with Nitra also expected to join them), or Košice and Prešov. Another option is that a larger and a smaller town, such as Banská Bystrica and Zvolen, or Žilina and Martin should join. Trenčín is another category, because with the gravitation of the neighbouring small towns a gravitation area of a city may arise. 137
