First forum session in the South-East Planning Region

On March 23, 2022, by the Center for Development of the Southeast Planning Region was organized a meeting with the Ministry of Environment and the mayors of this region as part of the activities for preparation of a Spatial Plan of the Republic of Northern Macedonia.

The meeting was attended by Deputy Minister of Environment and Physical Planning Hristina Odzaklieska, mayors and representatives of 10 municipalities in the Southeast Planning Region.

The purpose of the meeting was to get acquainted with the process of preparation of a Spatial Plan in the Republic of North Macedonia and the participants to take active part and contribute to decision making.

Planning regions are one of the most important stakeholders and their participation in this process is important regional priorities and specifics, which will achieve balanced development.

Therefore, it is especially important to actively involve the local self-government units in the process of drafting the Spatial Plan, which will provide the necessary documentation, data and information, in order to develop a plan that will contribute to the efforts to achieve balanced regional development in the state.

The whole process of preparation of the Spatial Plan, its adoption and implementation, who will be transparent, democratic and inclusive and will unite all stakeholders that are part of the planning policy.

A good policy of spatial planning and protection of the public interest is ensured by sustainable use of land, natural and created values ​​and protection of the environment, which is the basis of the methodology for preparation of the spatial plan.

The Center for Development of the South-East Planning Region within the project Sustainable Inclusive Balanced Regional Development – II phase of implementation on 07.03.2022 in Hotel “Sirius” Strumica organized a workshop on Smart Specialization. The workshop aimed to unite the: local authorities, academia, business sector and civil society and to expand their knowledge in the field of Smart Specialization, as an approach to increase competitiveness, to acquaint them with the process of developing a Strategy for Smart Specialization at the national level and how to replicate it at the regional level. This workshop is a starting point from which a region will have the opportunity to use the potential of the National Smart Specialization Strategy and to create a pilot Regional Smart Specialization Strategy aimed at European Union Cohesion Funds in the future. The Smart Specialization Strategy is of great importance for mapping the competitive advantages of each region separately and thus will focus on public and private investments in economic areas and branches that create the highest productivity and added value in the planning and development of each planning region. This activity is financially supported by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation and the Ministry of Local Self-Government.

On February 2, 2022, the project team from the project “Support to Social Entrepreneurship”, Barbara Sadovska, Suzana Trajkovska Kochankovska and Irina Janevska visited the Regional Social Point in the South-East Planning Region.

On the meeting was discussed the activities that are implemented so far within the project, ideas for a business model of sustainability, opportunities for financing of the potential social enterprises in the region and the next activities within the project.

Dance Kostova from Riversoft, one of the the most recognizable socially responsible companies in the region and beyond attend the meeting, where the opportunities for financial support of the business sector in the development of potential social enterprises from the South-East Planning Region were presented.

After the meeting, the project team realized a productive visit to the Red Cross Strumica and Ethno Restaurant “Kaj Viktor” . These two potential social enterprises serve as an excellent example at the local and regional level because they work with all categories of marginalized and socially excluded people. The Strumica Red Cross takes care of the vulnerable categories, recruits and trains volunteers, provides health prevention training and offers personal assistance and care for the elderly. While the Ethno Restaurant “Kaj Viktor” works under the motto “We are all the same, we all deserve joy” and provides support to people with autism where by cooking and organizing various activities that make their lives more beautiful.

The visit was very productive and resulted in concrete conclusions, ideas and creative solutions for future fruitful cooperation, visibility and sustainability of the Regional Social Point, where was discussed the opportunities that organizations would have in the future, creative ideas and solutions to grow into social enterprises with strengthened capacities and how to expand their services and promote themselves in the labor market.

With the signing of the Agreement on 17.01.2022, the Centre for the Development of the South-Eastern Planning Region started the implementation of the project “Business Ecosystem as an Integrated System – Bi In”, financed by the European Union through the Interreg IPA Program for cross-border cooperation between Greece and the Republic of North Macedonia.

The project aims to help individuals develop their skills and businesses to increase their capacity by creating a coherent, integrated and innovative business ecosystem that enables networking and strengthening of ideas in order to reduce the gap between supply and demand and market demand in the cross-border region.

Within the project is predicted a cross-sectoral and qualitative surveys accompanied by in-depth interviews, which will provide a broader picture of the workforce and trends in entrepreneurship, and will reveal important weaknesses. It also plans support, assistance in operations and encouragement of new ideas to existing small and medium-sized enterprises, through the development of a toolkit in order to strengthen the current operational capacities.

For young entrepreneurs from the South-East planning region, it is planned to organize a seven-day camp through which they will be able to develop their skills for writing a business plan, to acquire new knowledge in the field of innovation and entrepreneurship, but also to socialize and motivate for taking specific actions.

The 3D equipment that will be purchased will be presented to the general public and target groups by holding six open days where the attendees will have the opportunity to get to know this type of equipment and the advantages it offers.

These are only part of the activities that will be implemented within the project with a budget of 152,482.50 euros intended for  CDSEPR. The total budget of the project is 910,144.71 euros, and the activities will be implemented in the next 18 months.

On December 22, 2021, Ms. Julieta Gjurkova, Director of the Centre for Development of the South-East Planning Region and Mr. Ramiz Rexhepi, Director of the Bureau for Regional Development signed Agreements for realization of projects in the South-East Planning Region in the total amount of 50,824. 125.00 denars, which are provided through the Program for balanced regional development for 2021-2022.

Additionally for these projects on 24.12.2021 the director of the Centre and the Mayors of the municipalities from the South-East planning region, partners in the projects, signed Partnership Agreements for their realization. The own participation of the municipalities in the implementation of these projects is 16,685,954.00 denars, and the total value of the projects together with the funds from the Bureau for Balanced Regional Development is 67,510,079.00 denars. The following projects will be implemented:

1.Enrichment of the tourist offer in the Southeast planning region in the municipalities of Dojran, Gevgelija, Valandovo and Konce;

2.Construction of an access road to the regional station for homeless animals in the municipality of Strumica;

3.Construction of a local road from the village of Dimjan to the village of Pogulevo in the length of 1927.81 m;

4.Construction of a local road between v. Koleshino – v. Bosilovo (III phase).
The realization of these projects will begin in early 2022.

On 29.12.2021 in the premises of the Center for Development of the Southeast Planning Region was held a meeting to which representatives of all associations were invited who submitted Applications after the announced Public Call for election of a member in the Council for Development of the South-East Planning Region – representative of the associations.

According to the legal procedure, the associations that met the criteria stated in the Public Call unanimously decided that the Association Foundation for Local Development and Development of Information Technologies – Gevgelija was elected a member of the Council for Development of the South-East Planning Region – a representative of the associations through the authorized person Mr. Risto Atanasovski.

The mandate of the elected member – a representative of the associations will be verified at the next session of the Council for Development of the South-East Planning Region, at which the mandate of Mr. Mile Cekov as a member-representative of the business sector, who was nominated by the Chamber of Commerce of North Macedonia.