On the occasion of commemorating the 70th Anniversary of the Standing Conference of Towns and Municipalities, at today’s 51st assembly of this organization, the State Secretary of MDULS, Maja Mačužić Puzić, spoke on behalf of the Minister of Public Administration and Local Self-Government, Aleksandar Martinović, PhD.
“In the seven decades of existence of the Standing Conference of Towns and Municipalities, countless development projects and strategic plans, as well as visionary approaches to improving the functioning of local self-government, have come to the fore. All these years, the relevant Ministry was and still is a stable support for local self-governments on their paths of progress and modernization, but also the first and most important institutional partner of the Standing Conference of Towns and Municipalities in its key undertakings. MDULS has confirmed its role of an institution which openly cooperates, creates and provides good conditions for the development of the local self-government system,” Mačužić Puzić has said, extending her congratulations on the jubilee.
She has recalled that the Ministry awards the best local self-governments, those who continuously invest efforts in improving the lives of citizens, with monetary prizes in four areas every year, and that SCTM donates equipment to them in order to further improve the principles of good governance. As she added, MDULS and SCTM are jointly working on the reform of the local self-government system, which is closest to the citizens.
Mačužić Puzić has said that the Standing Conference of Towns and Municipalities actively participates in the creation and implementation of all important strategic documents, proposed by MDULS, and that the activities of working groups and other bodies are organized in mutual cooperation with the aim of providing support to Local Self-Government Units in the preparation of decisions and other legal acts, in order to ensure the proper application of the law.
“The joint role of the Ministry and SCTM in improving the local self-government system is clear, and we are doing this, first of all, through more efficient, economical, effective and better acting upon the responsibilities of Local Self-Government Units, and improving the provision of services to citizens, which is one of the priorities of the reform”, Mačužić Puzić has said.
She added that the Ministry of Public Administration and Local Self-Government remains the first and most important partner of the Standing Conference of Towns and Municipalities, as well as a supporting pillar and friend of all Local Self-Government Units in Serbia.
In addition to Goran Cvetanović, President of SCTM and of the Temporary Authority of the City of Leskovac, the representative of the host city and President of the Temporary Authority of the City of Belgrade, Aleksandar Šapić, has also made an address at the event.
The SCTM Assembly is the most important annual gathering of representatives of local self-governments. As part of today’s 51st Assembly, the “70 Years of SCTM” exhibition was also organized.
Photo gallery – source: MDULS
