Swiss Ambassador to the Republic of Serbia Jean-Daniel Ruch visited Tutin on 11 and 12 December to familiarise himself with the results of the projects the Swiss Government co-funded via the EU PROGRES Programme together with the European Union. His Excellency also familiarised himself with the municipality’s development potentials and confirmed that the Swiss Government would continue to support Tutin and the area via the new development programme, European PROGRES.
Tutin Mayor Šemsudin Kučević provided the Swiss Ambassador with an overview of the results this municipality achieved in the field of development in 2014 and its priorities in the forthcoming period.
The Ambassador took the opportunity to promote European PROGRES’ Public Call for Proposals to support clusters in introducing innovative practices and marketing. He underlined that only projects bringing the citizens tangible benefits, primarily those contributing to the creation of jobs, can be considered successful.
“Tutin is one of the youngest towns in Europe, which gives you an exceptional advantage – human capital wealth. It is up to you now to develop that capital, by facilitating access to education, business-related training, internships for students and, of course, employment opportunities. That is the only way to develop the region,” Ambassador Ruch said.
Ruch visited the “Poletarac 2” kindergarten for which the EU and the Swiss Government provided 161,000 Euro for the expansion and equipping of the kindergarten building.
The Ambassador and the Mayor also visited the Dallas and Jasen plants in Tutin and the new dairy under construction on the Pešter Plateau. He recalled that the local self-governments (LSG) can seek support for the overall improvement of their business competitiveness through European PROGRES activities.
“Together with the European Union, the Swiss Government has and is planning investments in Tutin and inter-municipal projects in this area. That means that we recognise that your Municipality has the capacity to achieve good results in European PROGRES, but that it needs to prepare itself well, because competition will be fiercer. We need high-quality and sustainable projects that foster inter-municipal cooperation and create jobs,” Ambassador Ruch said.
The European Union and the Swiss Government have through EU PROGRES alone provided over 500,000 Euro over the past four years to support eight projects in Tutin and its vicinity. These projects have helped improve the creation of a business-friendly environment, employment and social inclusion.
The European Union and the Swiss Government have allocated a total of 24.46 million Euro to support the activities of European PROGRES, the Programme that will be implemented with a view to contributing to the sustainable development of the 34 South East and South West Serbian local self-governments until 2017.
ENG SAOPSTENJE ambasador Svajcarske u poseti tutinu 11-12dec2014 (1).doc
