The Moravian-Silesian (North Moravian) region consists of the Bruntal, Frydek-Mistek, Karvina, Novy Jicin, Opava and Ostrava districts. The Moravian-Silesian region is located in the north-easternmost part of CR; it borders Poland on the north and east, and Slovakia in the southeast. With respect to the state administration, the region is split into 6 districts. The regional territory has an area of 5555 sq. km, (7,04 % of the Czech Republic territory), with 1.264 thousand inhabitants (in 2002) according to the Czech Statistical Office (e.g. 12,5% of the total CR population).
The above region is a territory that, in the west, is surrounded by the Hruby Jesenik Mountain, which gradually passes to the lower Nizky Jesenik and Oderske vrchy hills. In the east this territory is bordered by the Moravskoslezske Beskydy mountain range. The relief if rather articulated as its top peak Praded is 1492 above the sea level and the lowest point is the Oder River passing the Polish border on 195 m above the sea level. Half of the territory consists of agricultural land; one third is under forestation. The climate here can be characterized as the north mild band (zone) climate.

There are international transport routes passing through the region, which are formed by the international roads of E 75 and E 462 from the south to the north and E 11 from the west to the east and then the International Railway Corridor II. The regional centres are fitted with close transport and co-operative linkages. The above relations are rather broken due to the mountainous character of the landscape. The region is, in fact, highly urbanized with a high proportion of the population living in cities and with the existence of a significant conurbation. It is a region of contrasts both for the uneven density of the population, the distribution and concentration of the industrial production and natural landscape layout. With a population of 232 inhabitants per sq. km, the Ostravsko region ranks among the most densely populated areas in the Czech Republic, in spite of the fact that one o fits districts - Bruntal - is, on the contrary, one of the lease densely populated areas. The population density is two times higher than in the European Union with115 inhabitants per sq. km, on average though, the population in the region has been stagnating over the last number of years. The region is noted for its higher nationality heterogeneity than is usual in the CR. With regard to the minorities, there is a significant minority of Slovaks (5,36%) and Polish people (3,62%) in the region. To be able to forecast the future demographic and economic development, it is necessary to know the population structure according to the age categories.

The structure of the region's economy is unfavourable, due to its historical development. Industry is the main employer in the region, and is especially concentrated in the conurbation around Ostrava and Karvina. In the 1980's, the region was number one in the CR in the gross industrial output and nearly all the industrial branches can be found there. The coal mining, metallurgy and power productions prevail, with significant concentration of heavy engineering. There are other important sectors, such as chemical and pharmaceutical, electrotechnical, textiles industries, papermaking and food processing. A high number of traditional industrial enterprises are in the critical economic situation due to high debts and a high share of obsolete and non-productive tangible properties. Such a situation is an obstacle for the new investment development and it is difficult for the enterprises to find strategic partners with the capital necessary for the restructuring and modernizing of the production. Ostrava and its neighbourhood, e.g. Karvina, Frydek-Mistek and partially Novy Jicin districts, is the industrial centre of the region.
A significant restructuring process is taking place in coal mining and metallurgical industries at the moment. The coal mining output in 1989-2000 was reduced by 50 % to 12,5 mill. tons. Coal mining activities have thus been reduced and some have ceased in the Ostrava part of the mining district and there were also shut downs in the Karvina area. Lower output has brought about the reduction of employment in coalmines and follow-up companies, e.g. from 105 thousand (1989) to about 40 thousand in 1998 (which means a reduction of 62 %). Employment will continue to fall due to the restructuring of companies and the decreased demand for coal and coke. Previous and current coal mining activities are responsible for the limited development of other economic activities and the infrastructure by the fact that over 40 % of the Ostrava-Karvina conurbation are undermined or otherwise impacted by coal mining and coal processing (dumps and sludge beds). 14,000 ha of the region's terrain require development. Reduced output due to a decreased demand and falling markets had an impact on the metallurgical industry. Steel production has significantly fallen during the years 1989 to 1993, e.g. by 30% and at present it represents about 80% of the steel output in 1989. The current restructuring process has resulted in a significant reduction in the number of employees, i.e. from 90 thousand in 1989 to approximately half of this number at present.
There is inadequate foreign investment in the region. The main reason for this is the competition from Poland who has established several special economic zones nearby the border, providing very favourable conditions and incentives for the investors. In the Czech Republic the system of incentives for investors was introduced in 1998, and offers little incentives in the regions undergoing the large restructuring of industry, accompanied by the high unemployment rate. Other contributing factors are an inadequate motorway network, low preparedness of the sites available for the "green field investments" and poor regional marketing.

The existing natural conditions for agricultural operation are much diversified in the region, due to a large difference in the landscape, i.e. from sea level (the Jeseniky and Beskydy mountain area with up to 1492 m above the sea level and the mead land around the Oder river on the Polish border, of 195 m above the sea level). This means that on one hand there are much favourable conditions for intensive agriculture (Slezska nizina, Osoblazsko) but on the other one there are non-fertile areas in the mountains and along their foothills where only extensive agricultural operation is feasible.
Regional agricultural production takes place throughout the region. Out of the total agricultural land, 184,172 ha is the arable land, e.g. 64.4 %, but its level of cultivation differs, in the districts of Opava 82.9% of the land is cultivated and in Bruntal 47.8% is cultivated. Meadows and pastures occupy 83,268 ha of the regional territory, which is 29.1% of the agricultural land. The level of cultivation is high in some areas, which leads to strong wind and water erosion.
There are 2,075 sole proprietors operating on the agricultural land now and they use 34,3% of the total cultivated area. The average farm is 40 ha, but they can range in size from several hectares to 700 hectares or larger. There are 120 legal entities operating in the region, the average area of their farms is 1.320 ha and that of all the agricultural companies in the region is approximately 110 ha.
There are 18,321 persons working in agriculture in total, out of which over six thousand are registered as individual farmers but 2/3 of them operates on a small farm and are only part-time farmers. The trend of the further division of the agricultural entities and their land has already ceased; on the other hand, the trend of mergers has started. The agricultural sector is very important for the region, especially due to the follow-up industries where, according to the estimates, 25% of the active workforce is employed.

There was a dynamic development in the services sector in the early 1990's. In small and medium-sized enterprises, especially in services 130,000 jobs were created during the years 1990 to 1994. Thus it was possible for the people being made redundant from the large enterprises due to the first stage of restructuring and reduction in coal mining and heavy industries to be employed in the services area. The above absorption capacity, though, is limited and that's why new jobs number is lower than that of the new job applicants.
There is potential for further development of the services industry. However, the development is dependent on the economic situation and therefore, on the demand of the citizens and companies. The service sector employs 47% of the workforce in the Ostravsko region; this is below the Czech Republic average of 53.5%.
In this context, there is a high potential for tourism and the spa treatment development. The full potential for the tourism development cannot be exploited due to bad transport accessibility, insufficient regional marketing, a low standard of co-ordination of the private and public sector activities in the improvement, enhancement and providing of services, the lack of financial sources for the recovery of tourist and cultural attractions and inadequate resources to support the development of tourism and the spa treatment. There is a relatively high level of accommodation in the region, however not more than 30% of it is used by tourists. The overall standard of the restaurant and accommodation facilities, especially in the recreation zones, does not correspond with international standards and therefore requires development and modernisation. The Jeseniky and Beskydy mountains, particularly, offer ideal locations and spa centres to the inland and foreign visitors. Due to its short distances from the industrial area it is possible to gradually change the image of the region by offering a life style based on the extraordinary favourable combination of jobs and cultural activities in the cities together with access to the leisure time pursuits in the adjacent tourist centres and the natural amenities and views provided by the mountains.

As for the environmental quality, the Ostravsko region ranks among the worst ones in CR. All environmental components are polluted but at the moment the worst seems to be the contamination of bed rocks and ground water due to the industrial activities (old ecological burdens - brownfield), the damaged landscape due to the coal mining (sinking of the surface), the contamination of ground water and the air pollution due to the transport and stationary sources operation.
Since early nineties, there has been a gradual improvement in the environment, especially due to the reduction in the industrial production, due to larger investment in the environmental protection and the application of the environmental legislation. The Ostravsko region still belongs, together with the Northwest region and Prague, to the areas with the worst environmental condition in CR, resulting in a negative impact upon the quality of human life. There is much industrial waste generated in the region, most of it from power production, metallurgy and coal mining. The waste is disposed of normally by depositing it on the dumps and only a small amount is recycled or utilized for heat generation. With regard to the soil and bedrock contamination, the amount of time required and the costly redemption of the mined territory devastated by coal mining and sludge ponds, and the decontamination of industrial brownfields, which are obstacles against cleaning up the area. Their existence limits the development of the urban areas in the region and represents a potential danger for the health of the population.
In spite of the gradual improvements in the surface water quality, the water flows is still highly contaminated due to the absence of the wastewater treatment in many communities in the region. According to the oxygen regime indicators, more than 70% of the profiles measured on water flows belong to the categories of contaminated and strongly contaminated water, less than 9% then in the category of very strongly contaminated water. The situation is even worse in the biological and microbiological contamination indicators.
In the air pollution sphere, the emissions from stationary sources up to 1995 had fallen, due to the reduction of industrial production. In comparison with the situation in 1990, solid emissions were reduced by one third and gas emissions of SO2 and NOx were reduced by half. From 1996 to 1998, the reduction of emissions from stationary sources was slower and in the future, we can expect its stagnation. In spite of reduced emissions, air pollution remains a problem due to the concentration of the pollution sources and especially due to higher volume of nitrogen oxides emissions as a result of more intensive transport. The increase in transport leads to more intense noise, especially in the larger cities and around the main transport routes in the region.
There is a low environmental awareness of the public and its low participation at the decision-making process in this area in the region, as a result of the insufficient support to the environmental education.