As part of the continuing activities under the Rural and Regional Development Programme, which will be implemented by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) in Serbia in the next six years, Regional Development Agency Srem hosted the representatives of the consortium conducting the programme.
Sergei Ivanov, an expert on rural development, and Vladimir Pilja, an expert on regional development, together with the team of RDA Srem worked on the analysis of potential platforms as well as on the analysis of past experience and potential resources of RDA Srem and Srem region as a whole. The program, worth 6.9 mil. Swiss francs will be devoted to regional and rural initiatives supporting specific project programmme that include a component of technical assistance in capacity building for the preparation, administration and implementation of projects.
The result will be creation of at least three rural-regional initiatives (partnerships) in order to demonstrate the feasibility and usefulness of access to the functional space meeting the criteria for EU financing and increasing the capacity to use EU funds in the Republic of Serbia. It is expected that the initiative will bring together a wide range of partners active in the fields of rural and regional development, including regional development agencies, local governments, agricultural cooperatives, producers’ associations, individual producers, civil society organizations, etc.