Regionalisation as one of the processes to come

Predrag Novikov, Director of the Office for European Affairs, and Siniša Lazić, Secretary of Economy of the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina, participated in the conference “Cooperation and Internationalisation: Incompatibility, Synergy, Synthesis”, held in the Italian city of Udine on 5 October. As it was confirmed at the conference, regionalisation within the European Union is important, since that process has been indicated as one of the basic incentives for development in the years ahead of us.

Readiness to strengthen economic cooperation between Italy and Serbia was expressed at the meeting with Italian representatives. Moreover, it was confirmed that the President of Friuli-Venezia Giulia Region, Riccardo Illy would visit Novi Sad on 27 November to attend the closing conference of the Initiative of Socio-Economic Development of Vojvodina (ISSER project). Within the project framework, Italian experts held seminars at the secretariats and development agencies of the province for over a year and a half. On our behalf, the host would be Bojan Pajtić, MA, President of the Executive Council of the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina. At the same time, the visit of a larger number of Italian businesspeople was expected in November, whose purpose was to examine the prospects for establishing closer relations with companies in Vojvodina and Serbia. “Thus, opportunities for a stronger presence of Italian capital in the country would be opened and it would have positive effects on the raise of employment rate and employment of our human resources”, said Predrag Novikov.

In his speech, Siniša Lazić underlined the importance of the province’s cooperation programme and regional development. “These processes are of strategic importance for our country, in addition to participation in joint projects, they also provide support for the establishment of economic relations”, said Lazić.

As a result of the recently signed agreement between the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina and the Italian region of Umbria, representatives of fifteen Italian companies would be staying in Vojvodina from 7 to 10 November. The purpose of their visit would be business partner search in Vojvodina and support for cluster development.