City of Sremska Mitrovica was a host and Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) and RDA Srem were the organizers of the first regional workshop „Presentation of selecting criteria for rural – regional initiatives“ within the Support Project for Rural and Regional Development in Republic of Serbia. This project of SDC, worth 3,699,700 CHF, is implemented by a consortium of several partners like NIRAS Poland (Denmark), Polish rural Forum (Poland), Partner solutions (Serbia).
The aim is to form at least three rural – regional partnerships representatives of public, private and civil sector in Srem and Macva district for whose activities, in the first phase of the project, will be allocated 1.62 million CHF. The workshop was attended by the representatives of local governments of the Srem region, agricultural extension services, agricultural school, Fruska Gora National Park, the Provincial Secretariat for Urban Planning and Environmental Protection, Republic Geodetic Authority, JP „Vojvodina Waters“ JP „Hidro Srem“, Regional Development Agency of Podrinje, Podgorina and Radjevina, NGOs, the private sector.
Tomislav Jankovic, Deputy Mayor of Sremska Mitrovica, welcomed the present, stressing satisfaction that extends continuity important regional projects in Srem and John Gallagher, the leader of the project team noted that „This project is of the national importance since the Ministry of Agriculture and environmental protection, Ministry of Economy, the Standing Conference of towns and municipalities, Serbia development Agency, Regional development Agency, are engaged in the project who share the common vision of rural and regional development“. This approach provides preconditions for strengthening the role of local governments in the process of deciding on investment priorities at the local level and quality of services and cooperation with the civil and private sectors.
Milan Miric, Director of RDA Srem thanks John Gallagher for choosing the region of Srem as SDC pilot project, emphasising that „RDA Srem is recognized as the agency that has developed institutional framework when it comes to the development of the territory and inter-municipal cooperation in the management of regional projects with significance for the development of the entire region“.
The special quality of this workshop gave a presentation of PhD Vladimir Crnojević, director of the Institute Biosense who specializes in innovative solutions, promote and integrate all that ICT offers today – nanomaterials, miniaturized sensors, low-cost satellite imagery, robotics, big data analytics – to provide as much information as the agricultural sector.