Norway to provide EUR 1 million for development of local infrastructure and employment

Minister of Public Administration and Local Self-Government Branko Ruzic and Ambassador of Norway to Serbia Arne Bjornstad marked yesterday the launch of the public calls for projects in the areas of local infrastructure and vocational training, UNOPS Serbia announced.

As said, the Kingdom of Norway has given a million Euros to fund these projects through the “Norway for You“ program.

Local self-governments will be able to receive Norwegian support for at least eight projects aiming to improve living conditions and quality of local infrastructure and also to provide training to at least 250 persons, resulting with employment of at least 100 beneficiaries.

– We are grateful to the Kingdom of Norway for putting in focus support to the local self-governments from the third and fourth category of development in Serbia and paying attention to their needs. I invite local self-governments to participate in these calls and to submit their priority projects – Ruzic said.

Public calls are advertised on the website www.norveskazavas.org.rs, so the local self-governments can get informed about all the details and apply for the grants.

– Serbia is developing quickly, but some are left behind. Through this project, we will support people to get jobs and local self-government to improve services – Bjornstad said.

Minister Ruzic and Ambassador Bjornstad also discussed the development priorities with the Mayor of Bela Crkva Darko Bogosavljevic, as Bela Crkva is one of 91 local self-governments covered by “Norway for You”.

– Bela Crkva will be a constructive partner in this project, as it can bring benefits both to the citizens and the local self-government – the Mayor of Bela Crkva Darko Bogosavljevic said.

Later this November, another call supporting creation of new businesses and support to improving productivity of the existing businesses and creation of new jobs will be announced by “Norway for You”.

One of the project priorities is also assessment of the organizational and functional offset of the social welfare centers and professional competencies of their employees in five pilot local self-governments encompassed by the project. This will result with recommendations for service re-organization and thus contribute to the Government’s reform of the social protection system in Serbia.

Vlada Republike Srbije

Ministarstvo državne uprave i lokalne samouprave Republike Srbije

Opština Bela Crkva

UNOPS, Beograd

Ambasada Kraljevine Norveške u Beogradu

United Nations Office for Project Services Serbia

UNOPS Serbia

Branko Ruzic

Arne Bjornstad

Arne Sannes Bjornstad

Darko Bogosavljevic

local self governments

municipalities

development of local infrastructure. public call

project financing

Norway for Your project

vocational training

employment

new job creation

launching a business

social welfare centers

reform of social protection system