The draft regional planning guidelines for the West region identify the creation of a western development corridor as a strategic goal.
The plan says strong road, rail and air links and a sharing of resources and services would be essential to enable the greater region to attract new investment.
The weak nature of existing infrastructure is a theme running throughout the document, which also cites the development of a western rail corridor as another goal.
Last year the Western Development Commission highlighted a €644 million shortfall in "Objective One" spending in the Border, Midland and Western region, and that gap had since widened, according to Sligo/Leitrim Independent TD Ms Marian Harkin.
The draft document recommends the re-opening of the rail link on a phased basis over five years, with the first stage being the commuter and inter-regional link on the Claremorris-Tuam-Athenry-Oranmore-Galway section.
The document notes the changing economic profile of the three counties it represents - Galway, Mayo and Roscommon - with agricultural activity falling from 24.9 per cent to 16.3 per cent of total workforce representation, and a 5 per cent increase in industrial employment.
It recognises that the days of full-time employment on a 30-acre holding are now long gone, and supports the concept of new investment which will offer part-time opportunities to farmers remaining on the land.
It also recognises the need to support commercial fishing and aquaculture, and urges that the funding earmarked for Rossaveal fishery harbour, Co Galway - promised during the term of former marine minister, Mr Frank Fahey - be delivered upon to allow it to become both a deepwater and commercial port.
The guidelines recognise the Corrib gas field as a "major economic opportunity" for the West, but are realistic enough to acknowledge that this will only be realised if the promised major distribution network serving all urban centres in the region is constructed. This would then allow the West's population to benefit from a choice of energy sources.
The document goes so far as to state that "Government intervention" is required on gas distribution. Otherwise, as critics of the project including SIPTU point out, the benefits of the gas find will be lost not only to Mayo and the wider region, but also to the State, with the only net benefit being some 50 jobs in a refinery at an untold cost to the natural environment.
On decentralisation, the draft document simply says that it is to be "welcomed", but the figures show that only three towns - Roscommon, Claremorris, Co Mayo, and Ballinasloe, Co Galway - stand to benefit to any significant degree.
On the National Spatial Strategy, it outlines three options: concentration of growth in the Galway "gateway"; dispersal of developments; or development of the Galway "gateway", Tuam "hub" and Castlebar/Ball- ina "linked hub", supported by key towns, with encouragement of development in other centres and in rural areas.
It says that the third and last option reflects the ethos of the National Spatial Strategy.