Meeting of the SCTM Committee on Economic Development

The session of the Economic Development Committee was held on 11 July 2019 in the premises of the Standing Conference of Towns and Municipalities.

The Committee was chaired by the President of the Committee, Ninoslav Eric, the Mayor of Cuprija. Apart from the members of the Committee, the meeting was attended by representatives of the Ministry of Economy, Ministry of Trade, Tourism and Telecommunications, Ministry of Education, Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Management, as well as representatives of other towns and municipalities members of the Committee.

The session was held by a predefined agenda. Significant topics that were discussed were: strengthening the local investment environment, delegated tasks to LS in accordance with the new Law on Tourism and Catering, the role of LS in the application of the dual education system, and the key activities of the Ministry of the AFWM - Sector for Rural Development of importance for the LS.

Mr. Branislav Pejcic from the Ministry of Economy emphasized the importance of cooperation with local self-governments, bearing in mind that every investment project is local because it is implemented on the territory of a certain local community. He pointed out that the Law on Investment will change in the fourth quarter of this year or even a completely new Law will be adopted, since the last changes did not show the achievement of the required goal and invited the SCTM, as well as other partners, to support the preparation of these changes, primarily in terms of giving formal inputs. The amendment to the Regulation on the Selling of Construction Land cheaper or Without Fees was also mentioned. Its modifications are in progress since the representatives of local self-governments gave their suggestions during a workshop held on 18 June, which includes the Committee's proposals from the previous meeting of the Committee. Representatives of the Municipality of Osecina presented proposals related to better elaboration of the part of the Regulation that refers to the leasing of construction land. It was agreed that the Head of the Department of Investments, Mr. Pejcic, provide the members of the Committee and participants of the workshop with a pre-final version of the Regulation in order to discuss the final formulation of the Regulation.

The most questions and concerns were caused by the third agenda item related to the delegated tasks to LS defined by the Law on Tourism and the Law on Catering. Assistant Minister, Ms. Trefalt Bozic, pointed out that from 1 July 2019 the Catering Law is fully applied. Among other things, it was said that the fee, the request and the solution are paid by the caterers, but not the categorization costs. Previously, only the owners were categorized, and now the owner, the co-owner, and the household member who have to be at the same address. Entrepreneurs and legal entities pay the residence tax quarterly (up to 5^th in the month), and individuals pay a flat rate tax. For each room a special solution has to be made. One request is submitted which can have several solutions, and the solution is valid for three years.

Gabrijela Grujic, Assistant in the Department for Dual and Entrepreneurial Education of the Ministry of Education, spoke about the implementation of the dual education system and emphasized the importance and role of local self-government in this process. In the territory of 70 towns and municipalities, dual education is carried out, 18 profiles are filled with 100% of students. Local self-government is an important partner, because it needs to know which economy exists in its territory and what are the new profiles needed for the economy, and to inform the Ministry of Education in order to take timely activities to introduce the requested profiles. She pointed out that when new investors come, they must inform local self-governments about this. A master plan for dual education was also drafted, and Serbia, as she said, is a leader in the region regarding the implementation of this education system.

Sector for Rural Development of the Ministry of Agriculture was represented by Mr. Aleksandar Bogicevic, Assistant Minister. He informed the participants that a competition was opened for the establishment of a partnership for territorial rural development, as well as the development of local rural development strategies in line with the LEADER approach by 9 September 2019, and emphasized the importance of involving local self-governments at the initial stage, animating potential members of the partnership (future LAGs) and in the first years of their development.