National Assembly Speaker Nebojsa Stefanovic welcomed Ambassador Ruch who shared his pleasure at the meeting, especially in view of the fact that a Parliamentary Friendship Group with Switzerland had been established at the Serbian Parliament. Ambassador Ruch informed Speaker Stefanovic of his planned meeting with the representatives of the Group, reminding of the important role Switzerland has played and continues to play in support programmes for Serbia at different levels, starting as far back as 1999.
Opining that some of the programmes are exceptionally successful and mentioning that, so far, Switzerland had invested 32 million EUR into Serbia in the field of energy production alone, Ambassador Ruch focused on the current cooperation programme with the Parliament, realised in cooperation with UNDP. Ambassador Ruch suggested that the National Assembly Speaker should preside over the first meeting of the Managing Committee of the programme related to strengthening the parliament’s different capacities, in the presence of representatives of all the parliamentary factions, which Speaker Stefanovic accepted.
Speaker Stefanovic stressed that the project is important for the Parliament’s transparency, especially in view of the efforts expended on the development of communication with the public.
The officials agreed that Serbia should work more on improving the image the Swiss public has of it. Ambassador Ruch also launched an initiative to include Serbian citizens living and working in Switzerland into the investments into Serbia via special funds, which is a task to be tackled in the future.
Speaker Stefanovic commended the initiative, suggesting that the Serbian Government’s Office for Cooperation with the Diaspora and Serbs in the Region should also be included in the project.