20. December 2010.

The central office of the RS Development Fund was moved officially to Niš according to the R decision of the RS Government of establish this particular institution outside the Serbian capital city. The official opening of the new premises was attended by RS Minster of Economy and Regional Development Mladjan Dinkić, the RS Development Fund Sladjana Backović and Niš City Mayor Miloš Simonović.

On this occasion the opening of the branch offices in Kraljevo, Novi Pazar, Zaječar, Užice and Zrenjanin was announced. New central office will engage 20 to 30 people while 3 to 5 employees will be working in the branch offices.

Minister Dinkić said that the available funds for credit lines provided by institution will be increased for 4,2 billion dinars making the total available funds of 22 billion dinars for the year 2010. The development of the small and medium enterprises is the precondition for the economy development and moving the Fund outside Belgrade will facilitate easier access to the favorable credit lines for the entrepreneurs from all over Serbia. The new branch office in the future will make this process even easier.

On the occasion of the official opening of the RS Development Fund central office in Niš, Niš City Mayor Miloš Simonović said that it was the first important institution which was moved from the capital. He reminded everyone that 80% of Serbian citizens lived outside the capital city and that it was necessary to relocate central office of the national institutions to cities inside of Serbia.

Source, www.ni.rs

7 December 2010

In the period from 2 to 4 December, organized by the National Agency for Regional Development and Belgrade Fair, 9^th International Entrepreneurship Fair – the “Business Base” – was held, which gathered together more than 300 exhibitors, national and international, as well as all major institutions in charge of small and medium size companies development.

Companies with various business activities were presented at the Fair, as well as regional centers, agencies, chambers, associations of entrepreneurs, governmental institutions, local self governances, institutes and scientific and research centers.

Motto of the Fair was “the Key of Success”, and besides Serbian exhibitors, also representatives of Holland, Hungary, Italy, India, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro and Macedonia took part.

The Fair was opened by Mr. Ivica Ezdenci, Director of the National Agency for Regional Development who stated on that occasion that small and medium size companies were mostly affected by the crisis and that they were experiencing hard period. He also announced that co-financing of the entrepreneurship companies projects would be continued next year, the purpose of which is to create strong and competitive export orientated sector by knowledge and innovation.

The Regional Development Association ”JUG“ (the SOUTH) took part, for the first time, at the „Business Base“ Fair and their presentation was designed as an opportunity for showing development potentials of Toplicki, Nisavski and Pirotski Districts.

The major stress was put on presenting developmental potentials of the local self governances in Toplica, Pirot and Nisava Districts (greenfield & brownfield locations, good practice examples – in cooperation with current investors, future plans, etc.) and not on the companies operaing in those local environments.

As co-exhibitors at the Regional Development Association ”SOUTH“ stand, four municipalities were presented at the Fair (the municipalities of Aleksinac, Svrljig, Pirot, Dimitrovgrad) and the City of Nis.

During the Fair, several presentations and meetings were held and there were also new business cooperation opportunities.

The objective of this year Fair was to encourage establishing and development of small and medium size companies with various business activities, to increase competitiveness and innovation of SMS-s, as well as to develop general entrepreneurship culture in Serbia.

25 November 2010

The Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Office for Project Exports and the City of Niš organised the one-day seminar entitled Partnership for Sustainable Infrastructure Development on 24 November, 2010 in Niš. The objective of the seminar was to further enhance Serbian – Swedish cooperation in developing sustainable infrastructure projects.

The findings of the Heat Analyses for the territory of Niš City prepared by Swedish Consultant Companies Optensys Energianalys and Manergy were presented, focussing on future heat demand and supply solutions and present ways on how to proceed in promoting sustainable local development of Serbian infrastructure. The preparation of this study was financed by Swedish Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The seminar also gave examples of how projects can be developed from vision/idea to bankable projects including arrangement of financing and timely implementation. The presentations of strategic project development and the process for sustainable implementation of the infrastructure projects were delivered, Mr. Karl Edberg, Senior Adviser at the Swedish Ministry of Foreign Affairs Office for Project Exports and Mr. Anders Lund, Senior Manager, SEK, Swedish Advisory Services. Mr. Ulf Hedin from the Swedish City Vaxjo talked about what this municipality did within their jurisdictions to become the fossil fuel free.

The seminar was the opportunity for Niš Office for Local Economic Development to present their work and Mr. Randjelović, the head of the offices, presented the opportunities for business cooperation between Sweden and the City of Niš. Mr. Filipović, the executive director of Regional Development Association South presented the activities of this association and pointed out to the infrastructure development of the region.

Niš City Mayor Miloš Simonović, in his opening speech to the seminar, said that events of this kind always send the message about how important were to develop sustainable infrastructure projects. He added that if we wanted to be ready for IPA 2012 Programmes and its special components for the projects coming from South and East Serbia, we had to have good quality and sustainable projects.

The seminar was attended by H. E. Mr. Christer Asp, Ambassador of Sweden in Belgrade, Swedish Business Promotion Sector officers at the Embassy, the representatives for Standing Conference of Municipality and Towns, the representative of the Swedish companies operating in Serbia, the heads of administrative districts, representatives of the cities, municipalities and regional development agencies, chambers from commerce from South and East of Serbia.

On that occasion Marko Filipović, executive director of Regional Development Association „SOUTH“ introduced the Association to the participants.

He informed the participants on the work of the association, its objectives and role in regional development, as well as natural resources and development potentials and priorities of Pirot, Toplica and Nisava Districts.

On this occasion, important contacts for future cooperation were established with the Swedish national consulting agency SEK.

Source, www.ni.rs

15 November 2010

At the National Agency for Regional Development premises in Zajecar, a meeting of the regional agencies and centers representatives, as well as of the National Agency for Regional Development representatives, was held on 3 November.

The meeting was opened and chaired by Mr. Ivica Ezdenci, Director of the National Agency for Regional Development (NARR) on which occasion he informed the participants about the intention to make those meetings become traditional and to organize them once a month.

Following issues were discussed at the meeting:

- Mode of work and coordination of the Regional Agencies Republic Network

- Organization of IX International Entrepreneurship Fair „Business Baze 2010“

and

- Accreditation of the Regional Developmental Agencies

During the meeting, Mr. Ivica Ezdenci, Director of NARR, passed one of the conclusions made at the constitutional session of the National Council for Regional Development which was to initiate and accelerate constitution of the Regional Developmental Councils. He also pointed out that the Law on Regional Development anticipates that initiative for regional developmental policies should not come only from the national level but initiative should be started also at the regional levels and by regional councils.

The Ministry of Economy and Regional Development should develop a Register of Measures and Support, where each institution within the frame of its competences, will have to give a report on all activities that may be referred to as regional development.

This Registry is expected to become operative by February/March 2011.

It was pointed out at the meeting that we do not have normative suppositions yet for putting into effect the Law on Regional Development in a way it was designed and the faster we are in making it possible, the faster will be Regional Agencies with getting involved into designing regional development program.

By adopting the Decree on the Regional Developmental Agencies Accreditation, a part of the necessary work was done regarding preparation and adoption, as well as additional activities necessary to be carried out in the coming period: establishing the Register of Regional Development Measures and Support, forming of accreditation commission, selection of the sign that will be given to the accredited agencies, preparation of the contract template among NARR and accredited regional developmental agencies, adoption of the Operating Procedures on the Accreditation Commission work.

In the previous period, NARR actively participated and will participate in preparation of all mentioned documents and subordinate legal acts in collaboration with the Ministry of Economy and Regional Development, which is also a formal proposer of those regulations and acts before the Republic of Serbia Government. Regional Developmental Agencies are expected to actively participate regarding new programs proposals as well as suggestions concerning previous programs.

At the meeting it was also stressed that NARR is obliged to start the regional developmental agencies accreditation process from 1 December, as well as with accreditations renewal i.e. checking and verification of already existing accreditations.

It was pointed out that regional agencies need to be recognized by the local self governances as the regional development bearers.

3 November 2010

The office was officially opened by Milos Simonovic, the Mayor of Nish, Susan Fritz, USAID Mission Director, and Louis Faoro, USAID Agribusiness Project Chief of Party.

Louis Faoro said on the occasion: “By opening the Nish offices we wish to support the economic development in southern Serbia, particularly in agriculture and agribusiness. We will work on creating new jobs and increasing sales of Serbian agricultural products, produced by individual farmers and agribusiness enterprises.”

USAID Agribusiness project provides advisory and financial support to Serbian farmers, producer organizations, agriculture development service providers and agricultural enterprises in all stages of the production cycle throughout the system “from farm to fork”. Special attention, within the planned activities, is given to the involvement and support of youth and women in agribusiness.

Project seeks to contribute to the improvement of agricultural production, quality and packaging of agricultural products, increased competitiveness of Serbian agricultural enterprises and to enable access to new, international markets for export. This will be achieved through advisory assistance of domestic and American agricultural experts and through the Grants program. In cooperation with the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Management, the Project is also working on improving the Enabling Environment for Serbian Agribusiness.

First USAID office in Nis was opened in 2002 and for eight years of its existence numerous projects were implemented. Projects that are important for economic development in the region.

Agribusiness project was initiated in 2007 and it should end in 2012. The total project value is 25 million US dollars. The goal of the USAID Agribusiness Project is to increase the value of Serbian agricultural product sales and to increase employment in the agricultural sector. It is focused on the sectors of dairy, livestock, vegetables, fruits and herbs. The project provides technical support and financial grants.

On the same occasion Suzan Fric, USAID Mission Director visited Regional Development Association „SOUTH“.

On that occasion, opportunities for future cooperation were found, so the entire region will have an opportunity to use all forms of counseling and financial assistance provided by the Agribusiness Project in order to develop agriculture in the region.

Source, www.ni.rs