MORE FUNDS FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF BUJANOVAC, PRESEVO AND MEDVEDJA

10. March 2014.

The municipalities of Presevo, Bujanovac and Medvedja can, this year, count on around 10 percent more funds from the state budget than they could last year. The funds for infrastructure development, revival of the industrial production and improvement of the education system will come through the Coordination Body of the Government of the Republic of Serbia for the Municipalities of Presevo, Bujanovac and Medvedja.

This year, the municipality of Medvedja will get 37 million dinars for infrastructure projects. People from the local self-government of Medvedja stated that the last year’s subsidy to Medvedja’s economy amounted to 12 million dinars, as well as that they expected that the state financial aid for the education of more than 40 pupils and students from the municipality would continue. The municipality also expects further financial assistance from the state for the reopening of Nis University’s Faculties of Law and Economics’ Departments in Medvedja.

A million and a half euros were provided for the construction of the building of the Department of the Subotica Faculty of Economics’ Department in Bujanovac, out of which 1. 2 million euros are from the European Union, while the rest is from the state budget. It is expected that the ownership over the land on which the building of the Department it is to be built will soon be resolved and that construction works will begin.

Since its establishment in 2001, the Coordination Body for the Municipalities of Presevo, Bujanovac and Medvedja, has been funding the development of the three municipalities with 70 million euros. However, the main obstacle to the development of this part of Serbia is a very high unemployment rate, which exceeds 50 percent. At the beginning of the year, around five and a half thousand persons were registered to be out of work in Presevo, around four and a half thousand in Bujanovac and between fifteen hundred and two thousand in Medvedja.

The Coordination Body, among other things, seeks to put the large Bujananovac-based factory "Gumoplastika", which used to be in bankruptcy for years, back on their feet, which would mean jobs for hundreds of workers.

Source: Economic Review and Coordination Body