GOLDEN PLAQUE OF THE MUNICIPALITY OF MEDVEDJA PRESENTED TO MINISTER MILAN MARKOVIC, PRESIDENT OF THE COORDINATION BODY

21. May 2010.

On the occasion of the Day of the Municipality of Medvedja, a golden plaque was, yesterday, presented to Milan Markovic, the President of the Coordination Body and Minister for Public Administration and Local Self-Government, for his merits in development of this southern Serbian municipality.

Slobodan Draskovic, the municipal president of Medvedja, said that the plaque hadn’t been presented to anyone for over ten years, but that the Municipal Assembly of Medvedja had decided that it should be presented to Minister Markovic for the efforts he had put into development of the municipality.

Minister Markovic said that the opening of departments of Nis Faculties of Economics and Law in Medvedja and the launching of production in the “Lece” mine were especially important for development of Medvedja.

”I hope that at least 300 persons will soon get work there, which was the promise that we made when we started this business”, Minister Markovic said. He also stated that another facility, the prison’s building, would be constructed, where 150 persons from the region would get employed.

He also said that assistance would be provided to around 180 households from the municipality of Medvedja with developing agriculture, primarily cattle-breeding.

He added that by implementing those projects, Medvedja would leave the circle of the least developed municipalities.

Natasa Filic, the President of the Municipal Assembly of Medvedja, said that “the issues of underdevelopment and unemployment are the heaviest burdens for every municipality, like they are for Medvedja”.

"In a multiethnic environment such as ours, unemployment, economic crisis and poverty have further complicated our lives, as well as made them more difficult. In order to come out of the tunnel, it is necessary for both Serbs and Albanians to work on it. We are obliged to so because we have lived together in this region for a long time”’ she said.