Today, Minister of Local Self-Government Goran Milevski has opened the Conference on the Challenges in Balanced Regional Development, organized by the Ministry of Local Self-Government and supported by the Swiss Government, held in Veles.

The conference was also attended by the Ambassador of Switzerland to the Republic of Northern Macedonia, Sibyl Suter Tejada, and the President of the Council of the Vardar Planning Region, the Mayor of Veles, Ace Kocevski, the Mayors from the Vardar Planning Region, as well as domestic and foreign experts.

Minister Milevski expressed satisfaction with the opportunity to hold direct meetings with the mayors and Ambassador Tejada, immediately after the assumption of the office of Minister of Local Self-Government.

- As a minister of local self-government, I will primarily insist on direct communication with the mayors, with ZELS and with the donors, because I believe that the issues are resolved only with great initiative and commitment, but also with greater engagement of all involved parties, said Milevski.

The Minister of Local Self Government announced a dynamic agenda for realization of the government's priority for transfer of new competences and adequate financial resources of the municipalities.

-Parallel, it will be working to create a stimulating ambient for the development of the municipalities and the planning regions, by improving the normative framework, increasing the financial support for the development of the less developed planning regions, but also greater monitoring of the effects with regard to the money invested .

Minister of Local Self-Government Milevski stressed that one of the priorities of the Ministry is the preparation of the new Strategy for Regional Development for the next 10 years.
- I know that it is late, activities must be intensified and the document prepared by early November. An evaluation of the implementation of the current Strategy will be assessed, for which I will insist on a quality analytical document that will argue the reasons for the lack of results in the implementation of the policy for balanced regional development in the past ten years strategic period.

The Conference on the Challenges of Balanced Regional Development and Sharing of Experiences and Good Practices is organized within the Swiss Government Support Project: Sustainable and Inclusive Balanced Regional Development is one of the eight that is held in the eight planning regions.