At the sitting held on 20 February and chaired by the Committee Chairman Jovan Palalic, the Local Self-Government Committee considered the Information of the Ministry for NIP on the realisation of local self-government projects in 2008 and the Ministry’s 2009 plan.

The Minister for NIP, Verica Kalanovic, who attended the sitting, outlined the Ministry’s mode of operations for the Committee members, the realisation of projects in 2008 and the plan for the realisation of projects in 2009. In her address she stressed that, unlike more developed countries which use means from development banks or IPA funds for the development of infrastructure, Serbia uses NIP for these purposes. These projects include travel and transportation infrastructure, economic, energy, utility, and ecological infrastructure, investment into telecommunications, health system, education and public administration. The Ministry for NIP is a central place where every project is viewed as a product in each stage of its realisation procedure. 2 300 projects were financed in 2006 and 2007, about 1 000 in 2008, and the financing of 432 projects is planned for 2009. The means spent for this purpose in the 2006-2008 period amounted to 1.5% of the gross domestic product, which is a standard for less developed countries. This year, the total NIP means amount to 20.5 billion dinars, 5 billion dinars of which will be used for Corridor 10 via the Ministry of Infrastructure; 3.5 billion for projects via the Ministry of Economy and Regional Development and 12 billion for NIP projects. The Ministry for NIP received requests amounting to 937 billion dinars, priority projects take up about 60 billion dinars, and the granted means make up only one third i.e. about 20 billion dinars. This amount will enable the completion of projects already underway (60% of the means), and the rest will be allocated for the realisation of new projects, primarily those of national importance.

Discussing the realisation of local self-government projects, the Committee members and Minister Kalanovic talked about the number of realised projects, the realisation of projects for the local self-governments in AP Vojvodina, the criteria for finalising the list of approved projects for this year, the Ministry of NIP’s capacities to monitor the realisation of the projects, the local self-governments’ capacities to prepare the projects, the municipalities’ strategic plans for drafting projects, the election of the NIP Council and financing specific projects for certain towns and municipalities in Serbia this year.