The Minister of Public Administration and Local Self-Government, Aleksandar Martinović, PhD, has signed today, in Tršić, the Agreements on the Allocation of Funds from the Inter-Municipal Cooperation Fund with the representatives of the Cities of Belgrade, Niš, Loznica and Leskovac and with the representatives of the Municipalities of Ruma and Šid, as leading project partners.
Martinović has pointed out that cities and municipalities today acknowledge that the mechanism of inter-municipal partnership is in the spirit of Public Administration Reform and its transformation into a service for the citizens and the economy, as well as that association enables them to respond better to the needs of their communities.
Emphasizing that the Ministry of Public Administration and Local Self-Government shall continue to support inter-municipal partnership, Martinović has thanked the Swiss Cooperation Office in Serbia for the valuable support it provides in order to improve the functioning and work of local self-governments, and added that the good cooperation with the Swiss Government thus far means that Serbia absolutely has friends in Europe in these difficult times. As he has stated, the synergy of the public administration, Local Self-government Units and international partners contributes to the improvement of citizens’ living conditions and to the equal development of all cities and municipalities, which is the policy goal of the President of the Republic of Serbia, Aleksandar Vučić, and the Government of the Republic of Serbia.
“I would like to point out that I am extremely satisfied, and I am sure that this opinion is shared by my colleagues from the Cities of Belgrade, Niš and Leskovac and the Municipalities of Ruma and Šid, with the support we receive from the President of the Republic of Serbia, the Government, the Ministry of Public Administration and Local Self-Government, as well as with the support we receive from the Swiss Cooperation Office in Serbia. The Agreement we signed today is another step in providing full support for raising the level of cooperation through timely risk assessments in respect of the basins of certain rivers, such as the Drina River as the example of Loznica, as a river towards which ten more local self-governments gravitate – from Bogatić, Loznica, Mali Zvornik, Krupanj, and Ljubovija to Bajina Bašta, Nova Varoš, Prijepolje, Sjenica and Priboj. We are now better connected and are in a situation where we can predict and react at any moment by undertaking certain measures, primarily in terms of protecting the population, people, property and everything else in those situations. Therefore, this is an important moment for us, while the funds allocated for these purposes shall primarily be used for the further education of all persons who are directly involved in the performance of these tasks”, the Mayor of Loznica, Vidoje Petrović, has said.
The Head of the Department for Good Governance of the Swiss Government, Ms. Melina Papageorgiou Trippolini, has stated that Switzerland has been supporting local self-governments in Serbia for more than 15 years. She has pointed out that, in the last eight years, they have developed a strong partnership with the Ministry of Public Administration and Local Self-Government with the same goal – to conduct the reform of local self-governments into modern and democratic institutions capable of providing quality services to their citizens.
The Inter-Municipal Cooperation Fund was established in 2019 as part of the First Stage of the Swiss Government’s support for the Public Administration Reform and the Reform of the Local Self-Government System, from which more than CHF 320,870.00 have been allocated thus far, supporting 16 projects, i.e. 53 inter-municipal partnerships. Through the Public call, which was implemented in 2022 as part of the project “Local Self-Government for the 21st Century”, the sum of approximately CHF 94 thousand has been alocated for the purpose of improving the existing and establishing new inter-municipal cooperation. The projects which are implemented improve animal hygiene and utilities, the work of the State Attorney’s Office, water supply, energy efficiency in respect of public lighting, while support is also provided to the local population through the establishment of a joint office of the local Ombudsman and a specific service for accessing information intended for blind and visually impaired persons.
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