On 24th June 2002, delegation of Friuli-Venice-Julia Province,
headed by the President dr Renzo Tondo, visited Vojvodina
as a part of visit to our country that lasted for several
days, when they concluded that there is a need and willingness
to establish stronger cooperation between the two regions,
in many areas, including cooperation of universities, considering
that Trieste and Udine, on the one hand, and Novi Sad, on
the other, are university centers.
Friuli-Venice-Julia Province is one of the most developed
regions, among 20 in the whole Italy, with the population
of 1.3 million. As far as area is concerned, it is
somewhat smaller than Vojvodina.
Due to its specific geographical position (it is the
most prominent North East region of Italy) and presence
of minority population, they have a specific Statute
and additional jurisdictions in international policy
of the country in the area of cooperation and contacts
with regions on the territory of Balkan and East Europe.
Their priority is maintenance of peace and support
to other regions in their faster regional development.
Italian Government approved approximately 125 million
Euros for crediting export on the basis of Law on
Balkan Regions (so called, Law 84), and the leading
company of this region “FINEST”, allows financial
resources and provides credits warranty for acquisition
of equipment as a support to small and medium-sized
enterprises on the territory of Balkan.
They are especially interested in investing in areas
of agriculture, metallurgy complex, public and municipal
services, construction of ports, infrastructure et
cetera.
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All ideas, areas and possibilities
for cooperation are realised in the form of Protocol on Cooperation
between AP Vojvodina and this Italian province, which is signed
during the visit of the delegation of the Executive Council
of AP Vojvodina to Trieste, headed by the Vice-president of
the Executive Council of AP Vojvodina, Mandić Mile, in the period
between 16th and 17th April 2003, at the invitation of dr Renzo
Tondo, the President of this Italian Province.
In the Protocol, what is emphasized is a need for strengthening
friendly relations within common development strategy, which
mostly refers to economic development, education, culture, scientific
researches, as well as programmes for development and cooperation,
which will be realized through establishing of mixed working
groups, that involve experts from both sides (for agriculture,
entrepreneurship and other areas of cooperation).They will be
responsible for preparation and proposing of projects in certain
areas of cooperation and will resolve issues concerning common
objectives.
On 10th and 11th November 2003, a political and economic
delegation of Friuli-Venice-Julia Province paid a
return visit to AP Vojvodina in order to realise the
Protocol on Cooperation through work of six working
groups formed by the experts from both sides:
- working group for regional cooperation
- working group for area of privatisation, entrepreneurship,
small and medium-sized enterprises
- working group for finance and investments,
- working group for area of European integration,
- working group for agriculture,
- working group for energy.
Italian delegation also visited the Municipal Assembly
of Bačka Palanka, since the first contacts and initiatives
for wider regional cooperation with this Italian region,
started exactly in Bačka Palanka.
The proof of willingness on the part of Italy, to
implement the Protocol, is the signed document- agreement
by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic
of Italy to offer AP Vojvodina a project worth 360
000 Euros, on the basis of the Italian Law 84 pertaining
to financing of small and medium-sized enterprises
and bodies of public administration.
Some contacts have been made with the University of
Trieste. The areas of cooperation include geoinformational
technologies and systems, and the first concrete subject
of cooperation is organisation of postgraduate studies
between universities of Novi Sad and Trieste. The
first step has been made- one Tempus project has been
applied for. The project is supported by the Central
Europe Initiative, considering that it involves the
Faculty of Technical Science from Gratz and the University
of Tirana.
Numerous activities are under way, at the moment,
for engagement of the University of Novi Sad and other
relevant institutions in the Project concerning establishment
of data base on transport road network of the West
Balkans, which was initiated by the Italian part.
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