It was to cover the area of northern part of the historical province of Lesser Poland, with such cities as Częstochowa, Kielce and Sandomierz (first draft also included Radom).
First talks about creation of the new voivodeship took place on February 13, 1998 in the village of Zloty Potok.
Participants were local politicians from three voivodeships - Radomskie, Kieleckie and Czestochowskie.
This time, there were no representatives from Radom, they were replaced by politicians from western part of the Tarnobrzeg Voivodeship, together with the city of Sandomierz (but without the cities of Tarnobrzeg and Stalowa Wola), who expressed their desire to join the proposed province.
The text of the agreement was handed to the central authorities of Poland on July 8.