REGIONAL SUSTAINABILITY OF LOCAL AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT

The paper examines the essential preconditions for the sustainable development of local and rural communities, as well as the obstacles faced by developing and countries in transition. This paper aim is to identify, through a comparative analysis of countries in the region and Serbia, the real potential for sustainable and rural development, starting from regional competitiveness and national development strategies. The method of comparing data on economic and demographic trends and basic parameters of growth functioning in certain groups of countries wants to point out the specificities of sustainable growth of individual economies. The research results show that a long-term imbalance of inputs and outputs is created due to the lack of a concept of sustainability which causes irrational use of resources and energy. Started of the fact that all countries in the region generally have high quality natural, cultural and traditional heritage, as well as respectable renewable resources, the emphasis in the coming period must be on developing level strategies that will be based on the rational management of natural resources so that they can be achieved better sustainable development results. (C) 2019 EA. All rights reserved.