On Monday, May 15, the Draft Development Plans for the nine local self-governments were presented at the Hyatt Hotel. These included: Despotovac, CM Palilula from Niš, Ivanjica, Kladovo, Loznica, Ljig, Smederevo, Velika Plana, Zaječar and another already adopted Development Plan of Subotica, upon adoption of its highest level planning document in December 2022, while the development plans of the remaining nine local self-governments will soon be put up for public discussion. The development plans were created with the mentoring assistance of NALED and the Balkan Centre for Regulatory Reform, and in cooperation with the Public Policy Secretariat, within the project: “Supporting capacity building and development of local development plans” financed through the German Development Cooperation implemented by GIZ.
The PPS Director Bojana Tošić, GIZ Good Governance Program Director Stephen Heieck, NALED Executive Director Violeta Jovanović, as well as Jörg Heeskens, Advisor to the President of the Republic of Serbia, addressed the meeting.
The PPS Director Bojana Tošić emphasized that the local self-government development plan is the basis for long-term socio-economic development of the local community and pointed out that all local self-governments included in the project conducted extensive consultations and enabled every citizen to have their voice heard. Ms. Tošić added that PPS will continue to provide professional and methodological support to the colleagues from local self-governments in the further process of development plan implementation, as well as in reporting on the achieved results.
The local self-governments recognize agriculture and tourism to be the activities with the greatest development opportunity, while environmental protection is a priority for improving the quality of life for citizens. Apart from agriculture, tourism and ecology which were highlighted by all local self-governments, other development opportunities also included the implementation of measures to support entrepreneurship, the construction and reconstruction of roads water supply and sewerage and business zones, e-Government development, while significant activities would also be aimed at improving the quality of education and access to social and health services, as well as at the construction of sports fields and reconstruction of cultural and historical buildings. In addition to strategic issues, the citizens who participated in the surveys and development plans focused on their everyday needs such as additional parking spaces and green areas, reconstruction of streets and roads, bikeways, children’s playgrounds, an indoor swimming pools, and more events and content for the young.