Day of the REGION

On 23.12.2024, for the first time was organized the REGION day within the framework of the project “Sustainable and inclusive balanced regional development”, which is financially supported by the Ministry of local self-government and the Government of Switzerland.   The purpose of holding the Regional development day was to present attractive tourist potentials in the Southwest planning regions and the opportunities for creating sustainable tourism for the whole year, covering lake tourism, health, architecture, archeology, religious sites, eco-tourism, adventure tourism, culinary, tradition and other types of tourism, with the sole aim of every tourist staying extra days in the Southwest region.   The Director of the Center for development, Mr. Valon Kaba, gave a presentation on regional policy, the municipalities belonging to the Southwest region, the vision, goals and implemented projects for 2024. He emphasized that the year we are ending was a very good year for the Region and the Center. During 2024, the Center for development managed to implement 7 major projects, 3 projects financed by the Programs for balanced regional development, 3 projects by the Ministry of local self-government and the Government of Switzerland and one project financed by the UNDP Program.   At the panel discussion on the topic “The impact of balanced regional development towards sustainable urban and rural development of municipalities” panelists were the Mayor of the Municipality of Centar Župa – Mr. Arijan Ibrahim; Mr. Vladislav Župan – Sector for local economic development in the Municipality of Struga, Ms. Irena Zdravevska Spaseska – Sector for tourism and local economic development in the Municipality of Ohrid, Mr. Novica Kostojčinoski – Sector for Economic development in the Municipality of Vevcani, Ms. Milka Stamenkoska – Sector for local economic development in the Municipality of Makedonski Brod and Mr. Daniel Risteski – Sector for local economic development in the Municipality of Debrca.   The panelists made a cross-section of the advantages and disadvantages of the past tourist season, taking into account urban and rural areas, but also presented videos for the promotion of tourism from 9 municipalities from the Public Tourism Promotion Agency as possible tourist potentials.   In the second panel discussion, MA Valentina Pereska from the Agency for the Promotion and Support of Tourism gave a presentation. The topic of the second panel discussion was “Tourism Potential – Opportunity for Sustainable Tourism Development in the Public Sector Development Area”   The recommendations that were given:

• Raising awareness among the local population and tourists
• Involving the local population in decision-making
• Subsidies for the use of renewable energy sources
• Introducing green taxes
• Measures to increase female entrepreneurship
• Measures to create new jobs in rural areas
• Creating tourism clusters
• More pronounced cooperation of all stakeholders in tourism
• Creating regional tourism offers

  It was emphasized at the event that the activities and projects implemented by the Center for development of the SWPR, aimed at sustainable development and tourism, the environment, energy efficiency, as well as improving the municipal infrastructure.