Project "Improving Environment for Businesses at Local Level Through Regulatory Reform"

The project "Improving Environment for Businesses at Local Level Through Regulatory Reform", funded by the Swiss Organisation for Economic Co-operation (SDC), is a result of the partnership initiative of the Standing Conference of Towns and Municipalities (SCTM) - National Association of Local Authorities in Serbia, and OPTIMUS - Centre for Good Governance, with specialized expertise in the field of regulatory reform at the local level.

The main focus of the project is to create a foundation for a better business environment in a number of local self-governments in Serbia, and special attention will be dedicated to one of the main obstacles - outdated and unnecessarily complicated local administrative processes and procedures, which in many cases hinder or slow down business activities at the local level and have a negative impact on local economic development and new employment.

The project will, in this regard, be based on two main pillars, which should respond to specific needs of medium and smaller municipalities, as well as of larger and more developed towns or municipalities that are seen as a potential hub of economic development. The project will be implemented through two components:

• Component 1, implemented by the SCTM, includes the development, implementation and dissemination of models for a selected group of simplified administrative procedures for the smaller municipalities;
• Component 2, implemented by OPTIMUS, includes systemic regulatory reform of administrative procedures related to the operations, and introduces regulatory impact assessment (RIA) for local regulations in selected towns and municipalities.

In order to ensure the multiplication of effects of project interventions, the SCTM as a national association, through its role of representative will promote regulatory simplification to the general public in towns and municipalities and other stakeholders: policy makers, chambers of commerce and businesses. The SCTM will also provide the transfer of lessons learned from the sub-national level to the national level as a support to the process of regulatory reform at the national level.

The project will be implemented in the period of three years.

Contact person in SCTM is Darko Drndić, Manager of Component 1, darko.drndic@skgo.org.