Vojvodina receives €5 million from Austria

According to announcement of the President of the Executive Council of the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina, Bojan Pajtić, MA, made in the summer, Austria will donate five million euros to the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina. “Thus, our Austrian partners will provide specific and visible support for our country’s institutional capacity building”, said Predrag Novikov, Director of the Office for European Affairs.

“I hope that ‘high policy’ and temporary temptations in the relations between our country and the European Union will not endanger the implementation of the project important for all the citizens of our country”, added Novikov.

The technical part of the agreement with the Austrian Development Agency is expected to end in the next month. After the negotiations lasting several months, six measures have been included in the framework of the Integrated Regional Development Plan of the Autonomous Province, which are the beneficiaries of Austrian partners. Those are the following:

– Vojvodina Investment Promotion Fund (VIP), with the aim to improve the conditions for the economic development of the region and to improve the framework to attract foreign investment to the province,

– Centre for Strategic Economic Studies (CESS),

– Integrated Qualification Scheme (IQS), aimed at providing support and stimulation to the process of development of regional training objects and raising the total employment rate in Vojvodina,

– Business Standardisation and Certification Scheme (BSC),

– Agricultural Export Promotion Fund (APF), aimed at strengthening competitiveness,

– Joint Fund for Building Business Incubators in Vojvodina (BBI).

Its implementation is expected to start at the beginning of next year and it is planned to last two to three years.