Abstract. The issue of regional development is widely debated, regulated and analyzed in official EU documents, as well as in specialized literature. The theme of the research is extensive and it includes the analysis of economic, legal and administrative dimensions that contribute to the development of a strong interdisciplinary research. The traditional objective of regional development policies is to reduce regional disparities, intra and interregional, achieving a relative balance between economic and social development levels of various areas of a national territory.

To achieve this goal, it is necessary to develop management tools capable of providing an objective scientific analysis developing reliable data to contribute to the shaping in an essential manner the main directions of regional development.

The article is the first part of the “Polar diagram – Tool for periodic assessment of the degree of regional development” and it aims to achieve a brief description of regional development areas that are the subject of analysis of the project, as well as highlighting the main indicators that will be used in the research, in order to contribute to the development of a regional polar diagram.

Keywords: regional development, polar diagram, economic development, indicators.