Certificates for e-training "Sectoral Approach to Local Economic Development"

Participants of the e-training "Sectoral Approach to Local Economic Development" received today the certificates. Four-week training was carried out within the program "Support to Local Self-Governments on the Road to EU Accession - Second Phase" funded by the Government of Sweden and implemented by the Standing Conference of Towns and Municipalities SCTM).

Swedish Ambassador to Serbia Jan Lundin said that SCTM has been cooperating with them since 2001 and that their organization is a long-term partner whose goal was "strengthening the association and its internal capacities and organization".

"Since 2011 we have put more emphasis on the issue of European integration and the preparation of local self-governments and SCTM for future EU membership", Lundin said, adding that since then Sweden has focused on supporting Serbia to improve the quality of services for citizens in local self-governments, environmental protection and gender equality. He said that cooperation has made a good move in these areas at the local level.

Lundin pointed out that since 2016 Sweden has focused on the sector of local economic development, because it is seen by citizens as one of the key priorities, and at the same time it is an important condition on the path of joining the EU. "After that, we had a series of activities aimed at improving the investment climate and better economic development", Lundin said. Regulatory reform, as he underlined, resulted in a series of recommendations for improving the investment climate, and the cooperation will continue even when the current project is completed in 2020.

Representative of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Sinisa Cadjo said that cooperation with SCTM has been ongoing since 2002, and that the award of the certificate is a confirmation that it is successful and its goal is to increase the capacities of the local economic development offices.

"The role of the local self-government is to create conditions for the development of businesses that create new jobs", said Cadjo, adding that "only in the open dialogue of the mayors and their local economic development teams can the needs of citizens be identified and obstacles to the successful business on their territory". All those who are awarded, according to him, will work in attracting new investments, but also in maintaining existing ones.

Manager of the Program "Support to Local Self-Governments on the Road to EU Accession - Second Phase" Vladimir Jovanovic, congratulated the training participants, as this training of 128 applicants was completed by 113 participants, although "such electronic courses have a high percentage of dropouts".

 "The training is accredited and therefore someone in your career will evaluate you based on your training", Jovanovic said, adding that training programs were taken from USAID and that they had already been developed, so they are additionally aligned with current circumstances in Serbia.