A development agreement for Croatia's easternmost regions - Slavonia, Baranja, and Srijem - which will provide funding for the implementation of 29 strategic projects, was signed on Friday in the eastern town of Vinkovci.
The agreement was signed by officials of the Regional Development Ministry, the Agriculture Ministry, and all five counties of the eastern region of Slavonia in a meeting attended by Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic. It will provide funds for the implementation of 29 strategic development projects worth in total 700 million kuna (€95 million), with an additional 50 million kuna (€6.7 million) for their preparation.
The purpose of the agreement is to increase competitiveness, ensure more even regional development, respond to key social challenges, reduce poverty and increase the standard of living in Croatia’s five eastern counties.
Prime Minister Plenkovic said that the development agreement for Slavonia was a pilot project agreed by the government and the five counties, and represented a new mechanism for channelling EU funding. He added that the Slavonia project was worth €2.5 billion, and that contracts worth 6.8 billion kuna (€921 million) had been signed to date, or 36 percent of the targeted amount.
He announced that next week the government would put forward bills on government-assisted areas, islands and mountainous areas, and on housing provision in those areas, adding that consultations with the European Commission on a bill on the development of the town of Vukovar were nearing completion.
Minister for Regional Development and EU Funds, Gabrijela Zalac, said that the development agreement was a new method to harmonise the needs of central and local governments in accordance with county development strategies.
She said that the 700 million kuna for the implementation of the development agreement in the five counties of Slavonia would be secured from the EU’s Competitiveness and Cohesion operational programme and the state budget, and would be directed towards fully prepared projects for which building permits had already been issued.
Later on Friday, another agreement regarding the project was signed with the World Bank to provide advisory services. Its aim is to support the Slavonian counties in increasing their efficiency in using EU funds. The agreement was signed by Zalac and Elisabetta Capannelli, World Bank Country Manager for Croatia and Slovenia.
Zalac said that the agreement was worth €6.2 million, 85 percent of which would be secured from EU funds. She said that the purpose of the agreement was to establish a development assessment for individual areas in Slavonia which could increase the efficiency of using EU structural and investment funds.
“Slavonia has real economic potential, but in recent years it has been losing some of its best and brightest residents. Our team will work closely with the ministry to make maximum use of the EU funds to support productive activities in Slavonia. This requires collaboration across several national ministries, regional counterparts, the private sector, and civil society. Around the world, we have seen that the cities and regions that succeed are those that build coalitions for growth, and use resources strategically to support the most likely opportunities,” said Capannelli.
Demography Minister, Nada Murganic also attended the meeting and presented measures designed to spur demographic revitalisation. She said that 117 million kuna (€15.8 million) had been earmarked in the state budget to improve conditions in kindergartens across the country, including 29 million kuna (€3.9 million) for kindergartens in the five Slavonian counties.
(€1 = 7.38 kuna)
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