SOME REMARKS ON GURA HUMORULUI AREA

MY REGION – ALL INTERESTS

Gura Humorului area is situated in the Central Southern zone
of Suceava county, being attested by documents in the early of
XVth century. The relief is mainly hill to mountain. The most
developed of this zone is Gura Humorului city, attested as town in
1905.
The population density is approx. 83.3 inhabitants/km2.
The economical development of the area was closely linked to
the local existent resources, as well as its geographic position on
the commercial road between Bucovina and Ardeal.
The most developed industrial branches nowadays in Gura
Humorului City area are:
– timber industry (its development links to the local timberland
qualityand area)
– food (processing) industry (directly linked to the country
agriculture trends)
– light industry
– mining industry.
Industry takes the main place in the strategy of the zonal
economic and social reform.
The small business development is crucial to the economic
growth, since the general economic, social state is closely linked to
the entrepreneurs’ success. This contributes to create new
workplaces.
At present, the main activity domains concern the commerce
field.
Also there are 52 NGOs, even fewer performing community
services.

The main interests of population concern the orientation of

restructuring and sectional, branch development strategies to:
• Production orientation in accordance with demand and offer on
the intern/extern market
• Production restructuring through product sorto-typo-dimensional
diversification
• Product competitivity growth
• Managerial and organizational restructuring
• Changing profile for unprofitable activities
• A better use of existing production, stocking and selling
capacities
• Production making profitable by production costs reducing in
branches with potential development
• Encouraging to create unpolluting industrial branches to make
profit from the local raw material and work resources
• Attracting foreign investors to modernize the existing production
capacities.

1
 Agriculture is one of the highly important branches for the area
economic state; but it was bad aspected during this transition
period. Agriculture is a complex science, being included among
exact sciences. The interest to those involved in this field would be
to elaborate a project for the scientific restoration of agriculture.
Randomly made so far, it had random results, low outputs.
Services are another quite well represented field through small
companies of: tailoring, knitting (knitwear), domestic and electronic
repairing, and community services taxi service etc.
The interest of those involved in services field would be to
specialize in domains which would increase their competitivity
degree, allowing them to implement area sustainable development
strategies.
Tourism
Gura Humorului area presents various favorable premises to
promote and develop an internationally competitive tourism:
• National and international value of cultural, historical, religious
objectives – Voronet and Humor monasteries;
• Bucovina Folk Custom Museum;
• <Piatra Soimului>, <Piatra Pinului> geological reservations;
• Lunca Moldovei – agreement zone and dendrologic park;
• Picturesque natural surroundings;
• The existence of an oligomineral water source on the city
territory (unexploited so far);
• An infrastructure making easier the access to the most
important tourist objectives of the country;
• Existing premises to promote the rural tourism; hunting and
fishing tourism, winter sports tourism, and a recreation and
agreement tourism.
A very good tourist and agrotouristic potential represents the
most important local resource, insufficiently exploited. The city
could become a national and international interest tourist centre, by
finishing existing investment working and making a long-term
project.
The human factors – the living workforce from tourism – is the
<link> between the product components in the tourist service pack.
In tourism, the business is highly dependent to people. Interaction
between service provider and custom is the main part of the
provided service. Each employee of a tourist provider company
makes contact and serves Romanian and foreign tourists; his
attitude and behaviour could increase or decrease the company
reputation.
To accomplish a perfect task, employees must be willing to do so,
and to be well trained. Making personnel recruitment, managers
should establish quality standards, and measure the accomplished
performance.

2
 Health protection
To ensure the medical assistance, a sanitary unit system is
working, which consists in: polyclinic, medical centres, and a city
hospital – 203 beds.
Education and culture
The education system consists in state scholastic units:
kindergarten, schools, high schools. The education process is
severely affected in some rural zones by inappropriate roads for
transport means, by long distance between urban and rural centres,
or between villages and hamlets, also between scholastic units and
teachers’ and pupils’ homes.
The cultural activities take place in profile institutions, such as:
City Culture House, library, Gura Humorului Ethnographic Museum,
village cultural homes. There are more than 400 subscriptions for
newspapers and magazines in Gura Humorului.
The cultural life in Bucovina disadvantaged rural zone was
affected by inhabitants’ poor material state, medical assistance and
educational system problems, permanent depreciation of the living
standards. There is a high shortage of specialists; in the mining
area, cultural units cover only 7.8% from the existing number for
the whole county.
Religion
The main religion in Gura Humorului area is Orthodoxy. There are
different confessions peacefully coexisting in the same community.
Every confession held proper buildings for church service.
Population structure on age level
Total Young people Grown people Old people over
population under 30 31-60 years 60 years
100% 35% 49.61% 15.39%

Population structure by sex

Total population Male Female
100% 48.27% 51.73%

The workforce cruel reality even in the most developed city may
be observed throughout the small number of official employees in
various institutions: 2684. It means that, from 9,000 working people,
6,300 lack the <employee status>. In Gura Humorului city, the
unemployment is higher than the country average level: officially –
23.4%, in reality – over 60%. In the observed mining area the
unemployment is about 19%. This situation worsens due to the fact
that analyzed town and villages – helding 21.1% from the county
population – are in the mountain area, having harsh climate
(minimal temperature of -38°C), and 120-160 snowy days every
year.
Not to mention a poor road communication and
telecommunication systems. There are only 4,000 phone posts in
Gura Humorului, and over 2,1000 cable TV subscribes.

3
 I. MAIN PROBLEMS
The main problems identified for the workforce and economic
development in every field are:
– low demand versus high offer on the workmarket, mostly due to
huge redundancies in the mining sector;
– the unfavourable environment and circumstance factors to the
solid sound business, mostly for the production and service field.
The area held a very sensitive region, asking a careful attention
towards its development and protection.
This region – geo-morphologically disadvantaged – held a
problematic agriculture (mountain area difficulties), and it is
confronted to the mountain development and complex industry
matters. Also difficulties are raising in communication and transport
sectors, facing a population exodus.
On the other hand, the county mountain area needs a particular
attention, since there are important natural reservations, making a
possible successful tourist zone.
Community Centre for Managerial Assistance Domus (part of
DOMUS Humanitarian Foundation) made a Complex Zonal Appraisal
Research for this area, observing:
– appraisal on the subjects’ awareness degree concerning the
economic potential of resource exploitation
– bringing out the real image on the entrepreneurial intentions
throughout different social categories
– appraisal of the zonal cultural-managerial particularities (the
possible orientation to a successful cultural pattern)
– bringing out business opportunities and key elements in
economical re-launching of this area.
The research was made on questionnaire basis, on 430 subjects’
sample – from which 405 analyzed (197 women, 208 men); the rest
was left out, by experimental protocol.
The selection of samples was directed towards social groups of
our interest, as follows:
• unemployed
• budgetary institution employees
• non-budgetary institution employees
• private entrepreneurs.
The subjects consider their material state such as satisfactory
(53.9%), good (26.2%), bad (15%), very bad (3.5%), very good
(1.2%).
Taking into account that 49.8% of sample subjects are
unemployed and 28.3% work in budgetary institutions, we may
conclude that:
– the subjects still have resources to possibly involve themselves in
private activities;
– or there is not a real measure scale;
– or, their responses are based on a specific Romanian spiritual
state, to consider material difficulties as normal component of
life.

4
 We may notice an equal receptiveness for starting a private
business to the law and middle educated people (4.4%), more than
to the high educated people (2.9%). Also, high educated people
working in budgetary or non-budgetary institutions do not like to
imply themselves in such activities.
Here are the fields of interest for those willing to start a private
business: services (29%), food processing industry (25%), tourism
(25%), trade (23%), craft industry (16.6%), textile industry (8.3%),
timber industry (6.2%).
It results that orientation towards other zonal markets or
international markets represents the only possibility to attract
investments.
The subjects have identified as inadequately exploited resources,
mainly: tourism (48.2%), timber (11.1%), workforce (10.6%),
forestry (4.4%), zootechnic field (3.4%), mining field (2.5%), fruits of
the forest (1.7%), and coal seam (1.4%).
Business implied or not, the subjects see the COURAGE as the
main quality for an entrepreneur. The private business non-implied
are aware of money being the next deficient resource. They do not
take into account their professional relationships, renouncing to
every initiative, and therefore, considering ABILITY as a main
success condition. Different ways of needed resources appraisal
lead to different action levels and different target settings. The non-
implied do not accept the personal example of successful people.
For instance, successful managers perceive themselves – and are
perceived – as one close community trying to cut down the access
to power for the less successful ones. The successful businessmen
are not willing to share their experience.
Sharing their success example, they could improve the way to
perceive the things for private business non-implied people.

Strong points, weak points concerning the analyzed area

Strong points
• Declaration of this area
as <disadvantaged zone>
• Valuable natural
resources
Weak points
• Persistence of mentality
against the competitive
business environment
• Resistance to change

• Raw material: livestock, • High unemployment level

wool, mineral
• Town and village siting
alongside the intense
traffic roads network
• High tourist/agro-tourist
potential, especially to
Voronet, Gura Humorului,
(no positive expectations;
unemployment area
average rate = over 20%)
• A certain fatalism to long
term unemployed
• Low managerial culture
level
• Local market = lowly

5
 Gura Humorului monastery,
and Cacica
• Natural, splendid
environment
• Preservation of Bucovina
traditional customs and
occupations
• Available workforce
• Existing possibilities to
training and retraining for
new jobs
• Good preservation of the
ecological balance in this
area, with no significant
pollution sign
developed
• Infrastructure, county
roads especially, in
permanent degradation
• Lack of confidence in state
institutions
• Difficult access to finance
sources for starting a
business
• Little co-operation with
foreign partners or joint
ventures
• Private sector became
itself a source of
unemployment
• Signs of cultural crisis
towards material well-being
• Business managers
reluctance in sharing their
experience to those aiming
to start a private business
• Lack of correlation
between activities and long
term projects carried on by
all those implied in local
economic development
• Agricultural land with low
qualities

The tourism is a special opportunity for this area.

Offering services, products, and attitudes from the years ‘60s to
nowadays-sophisticated tourist means to follow a failure receipt.
Becoming customers, these tourists have the right to be promptly
served. Very often, we may find sulky selling personnel, rude
waiters, incompetent mechanics, irritable taxi drivers and so on.
At present, Romania – as well as other East European countries –
is confronted to a special psychology concerning the tourist service
providers. The existing personnel still pays tribute to a traditional
way of thinking. They cannot make the difference between
helpfulness and servility. Therefore, this workforce already
employed needs support, encouragement and, first of all, good
training. They will find out the customer expectations to fulfill.
The Romanian village <temptations> become more and more
the best option to those aiming to enjoy the peaceful, beautiful rural
landscape.
Lately, in Bucovina rural area they built up various hostelry
forms. But their owners’ lack of specific training.

6
 II. POWER ANALISTS
The long term economic development programmes should be
based on making pay the local available potential. For example:
• a timber better exploitation
• an animal product better exploitation (meat, milk, wool, leather)
– farming and breeding are the main rural activities in this area
• a vegetable product better exploitation (fruits of the forest,
mushrooms, medicinal plants)
• a successful exploitation of mineral water sources
• a high rural tourism development, due to the beautiful local
landscape, cynegetic potential etc.
There are plenty of long term investment possibilities, which might
report on different level: economical, breeding research, rural
tourism.
The county decision factors get started several activities aiming to
develop local tourism. They also have elaborated contributing
projects:
– project to create Bucovina monasteries national park
(PNMB), seen as local administration associative structure –
NGOs and business associations; these structures will be the
garant for the future zonal development;
– creation of <Open Forum for Bucovina promoting
tourism> - initiative of IBD/GT2 (Consultancy Integrated Service
for the Romanian Economy – SICER) and Suceava Chamber of
Commerce and Industry. The association covers the local main
representatives (Prefecture, County Council, mayoralty,
institutions involved in promoting local tourism as a better
economical alternative). It aims:
– elaboration of strategy concerning Bucovina tourism
– elaboration of tourist data base on Bucovina objectives
– attraction of programmes and finance sources to
increase local tourism accessibility.
Such opportunities make tourism a high local priority.
New and traditional tourist operators see themselves in
increasing competitivity. Therefore the necessity to develop new
products, offers and services packs, to win the market. This may
lead to training necessities for the tourist personnel, and need to
specialize on international standards for managerial activities.

Brândusa Andronic