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The Government of the Republic of Serbia

In the service of citizens

Memorandum of Understanding signed on Norway’s aid to Serbia worth €10 million

Belgrade, 4 December 2006

Serbian Minister of International Economic Relations Milan Parivodic and Director for Western Balkans at the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs Niels Ragnar Kamsvaag signed today a Memorandum of Understanding on Norway’s aid to Serbia in 2006 in the amount of €10 million.

Niels Ragnar Kamsvaag, left, and Milan Parivodic shake hands after signing a Memorandum of Understanding

Parivodic told a press conference that Norway has thus far approved aid worth more than €60 million to Serbia, of which €50 million has been realised.

He explained that annually Norway provides two kinds of aid to Serbia in the total amount of €20 million, of which €10 million is intended for the Republic of Serbia, and €10 million is for international organistions which support Serbia with their activities.

Parivodic said that the aid which was provided during 2006 has two aims, the first is to achieve European integration, and the other is creating employment.

According to Parivodic, projects which directly encourage European integration are those which, above all, support the development of administrative capacities, and the most important among them is development of an information system for preparing and administering the budget and an integrated computer system for support and inclusion of direct and indirect budget users in the programme budget, for which a sum of €1.8 million has been set aside.

Similarly, there is a project for implementing methods of assessing effects of the process of European integration, which is worth €229.000, and measures the effects of changes and adjustments in domestic legislation according to regulations valid in the EU.

Parivodic added that one of the projects is support in preparing a decentralised system of administering EU funds, which allows use of EU funds from the time when on January 1 next year the European Agency for Reconstruction ceases to exist.

The Minister said that other projects in this group are those which concern effectiveness of implementing reforms, such as the project for introducing programme budgeting and development of information systems for planning and budgeting in the context of improving capacities of the Ministry of Interior in using budgetary funds.

Speaking on projects for increasing employment opportunities, Parivodic said that these are the third phase of the business incubators project in Nis, for which a sum of €1 million has been set aside, and the project for encouraging development of clusters, for which funds worth €580.000 have been allocated.

He expressed gratitude to the Norwegian government for providing the aid to Serbia, and added that it is of great importance because it is directly focused on the current needs of the country.