More than two hundred companies, clusters, development agencies and other institutions took part in the „Forum on Economic Cooperation of the Republic of Srpska and Republic of Serbia, Banja Luka 2015“ which was organized by the Republic Agency for Development of Small and Medium Enterprises of R. Srpska and National Agency for Regional Development of Serbia. The Minister of Industry, Energy and Mining, Petar Djokic, and Secretary of State in the Ministry of Economy of Serbia, Miloš Petrović, officially opened the Forum.
Within this two-day forum, a round table was organized on topic of „Development agencies in the service of economic development“ where local development agencies from the Republic of Srpska and regional development agencies from Serbia participated. The examples of good practice, exchange of experiences and potential forms of cooperation were proposed.
The concept of regional development in Srem is presented as an innovative approach whose principles of regionalization projects are based on a balanced development of the region of Srem connecting all stakeholders and all participants of development, such as municipalities, public companies, local and regional experts and other institutions of interest. „Regional projects in RDA Srem are not an alternative to the local municipal projects but higher supplement as more efficient and cheaper solutions that enable better accessibility to sources of financing,“ said Milan Miric, director of RDA Srem. Model of development of business infrastructure implemented by RDA Srem was also presented in the way of a special approach in the preparation of regional investment projects with the presentation of the case of establishing a work zone.
Partners from the Republic of Srpska expressed interest in establishing cooperation with RDA Srem and the possibility of transferring positive experiences and models that RDA Srem implemented in their region.