THE QUALITY OF SERVICES OF GENERAL INTEREST IN THE NORTH-EAST REGION OF ROMANIA: SPOTLIGHT ON THE CONSUMERS’ PERCEPTION
THE QUALITY OF SERVICES OF GENERAL INTEREST IN THE NORTH-EAST REGION OF ROMANIA: SPOTLIGHT ON THE CONSUMERS’ PERCEPTION

Summary/Abstract: The services of general interest (SGI) envisage those services able to respond the obligations derived from the public interest criterion, being usually divided into two categories, which refer to services of general economic interest and social services of general interest. This paper proposes an inquiry into the main characteristics of the SGI in Romania at national and territorial level, with a particular focus on the North-East region. More precisely, it aims to investigate the consumers’ perception on quality of the existent SGI in the North-East region. The methodology mainly focuses on a questionnaire designed within the ESPON project the paper is based on, for all envisaged regions in the participant countries. The results show that in general respondents have a positive perception on the quality of SGI in the North-East region. For example, in general, the quality of the electricity network, of the water supply network, of the mobile phone (network coverage), of Internet (broadband), of the services provided by the local public administration, by pharmacies, by social care, by kindergarten/pre-school, by primary school, by posts, by libraries is considered to be good. However, there are also SGI considered neither good nor bad, in relation to their quality; it is, in general, the case of the local and main roads, of the waste disposal, and of the telephone network (fixed line). Finally, the paper identifies future challenges related to the SGI at national and territorial level, offering useful suggestions to the policy-makers in this field.

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