Cross-border cooperation Serbia - North Macedonia: Great results and new friendships encouraging further rural development

Economic empowerment of rural population, primarily women and young people, through improvement of existing and introduction of new support measures that could contribute to employment and local income generation is the main goal of the project "Fit for the needs: Better opportunities tailored to underdeveloped areas", whose final conference was held today, presenting the most important results, achievements and impressions of all participants. The cross-border cooperation project includes three local governments from Serbia - Lebane, Surdulica, Vlasotince and two from North Macedonia - Kumanovo and Staro Nagoričane.

Dijana Spalević, Regional Development Advisor in NALED, greeted the attendees and expressed her gratitude to all actors who contributed to the successful results that will be largely benefit the selected municipalities, but also reminded them of the most important activities that were carried out in the past period.

- Our mission while working on the project was to create favorable conditions and an environment for generating income at the local level, in order to keep the existing population from leaving, and motivate those who found their place abroad to return to their motherland. I would especially like to mention the two key pillars of all recommendations that we established after extensive consultations in the field, and they relate to improving competitiveness in agricultural and food production, as well as income diversification and improving the quality of life in rural areas - said Dijana Spalević.

Slobodanka Pavlović, president of the Women's Association "Ruža" from Lebane, emphasized that the first call for cross-border cooperation between Serbia and North Macedonia is a very good basis that will help further activities aimed at rural development in all five municipalities, stressing that the existing results can also be used by other local governments to encourage the development of rural economy.

- I am very pleased that after recognizing the problems on the ground, we managed to define support measures for each of them together with the local governments, which should help them in providing support to their producers, both for primary production or the processing industry - emphasized Slobodanka Pavlović.

Marinko Đorđević, Head of Economy, Urban Planning and Environmental Protection in the municipality of Vlasotince, shared his experiences about the project, expressing satisfaction with the recently organiized study visit to North Macedonia and further cooperation in solving problems in the fields of agriculture and tourism.

- We worked on mapping the measures that can be applied in our municipality. I am glad that we tried to single out two measures that were included in the program to support rural development and agriculture, namely support to agricultural farms in terms of fruit and vegetable processing, as well as support to individuals, farms, entrepreneurs or cooperatives in terms of non-agricultural activities related to domestic handicrafts, that can be very important for tourism development - explained Marinko Đorđević.

The conference was also attended by representatives of partner organizations from North Macedonia, local governments participating in the project, members of the Coordinating Body made up of organizations and institutions of all three sectors, representatives of the Joint Secretariat of the Cross-Border Cooperation Program Serbia - North Macedonia, as well as representatives of other local governments from Serbia.

The cross-border cooperation project Fit for the Needs: Better opportunities tailored to underdeveloped areas is funded by the European Union, and is implemented by NALED in partnership with the women's association "Ruža" from Lebanon, the Foundation for Management and Industrial Research "MIR" from Skopje and the civil center "AktivUm" from Kumanovo.

 


Related Content

This website uses cookies to ensure the best user experience. By continuing to browse the site, you consent to the use of cookies.

CONTINUE LEARN MORE