26th September 2024, Skopje – Municipal development and local economic development are in the focus of the new Government. The mutual cooperation, as well as the financial support therefor will be a continuous process, Deputy Minister of Finance, Nikolche Jankulovski pointed out at the Annual Leadership Forum: “Collaborative Strategies for Sustainable Resource Mobilization and Decentralization”.
“The goal is to build modern, transparent and financially stable municipalities through an even distribution of funds between the planning regions and the municipalities, while also providing for equal development of all regions. As already known, EUR 100 million has been provided for municipal development since this Government took office. The respective funds are projected in the Budget, as per the Supplementary Budget, which was adopted in August this year, with the evaluation procedure of the foreseen projects already underway”, Deputy Minister said, thereby underlining that what matters the most is to strengthen the capacities of the municipalities, which will be able to render better services to the citizens owing to such productive projects.
He also emphasized that as per this Government, capital investments are crucial factor in boosting competitiveness of the economy and better-quality of life for citizens. Hence, in the coming period, Budget funds are projected for capital infrastructure projects in the municipalities, worth up to EUR 250 million.
“Priority is to be given to capital investments, exclusively intended for productive projects, such as infrastructure and energy projects, which will be in support of the business sector, as well as capital projects related to utilities and other local infrastructure, all to the end of improving the living conditions of Macedonian citizens”, Jankulovski said. He also added that in order for these funds to generate the best possible effects, efforts will be put to increase the financial stability of municipalities by ensuring equal distribution of funds, while paying attention to the balanced regional development principles, benefits and incentives for those municipalities with well-designed budgets, high expenditure execution, high local tax collection, as well as improved methodology for calculating the maintenance costs of educational facilities in the municipalities, as per which, funds are paid thereto via block grants.
Annual Leadership Forum is organized within USAID’s Strengthening Resource Mobilization Activity Project.
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