Regions for the future
On the photo (from the left) Matjaž Ribaš, Director of SRDF, Samo Pogorelc, Mayor of the Municipality of Ribnica, Dr. Aleksander Jevšek, Minister of Cohesion and Regional Development, mag. Dejan Židan, State Secretary at the Ministry of the Economy | Author Tina Ramujkić
In early September 2024, following the Ministry’s initiative, the Government of the Republic of Slovenia adopted amendments to the Programme of Development Incentives for Border Problem Areas by the end of 2025. The amendments introduced new measures focusing on tourism, particularly the construction of public tourist infrastructure and the promotion of the development of private tourist accommodation with a higher added value, measures for the revitalisation of public infrastructure facilities, and loans for investment projects in public infrastructure.
“The Ministry itself and through SRDF and the Slovenian Enterprise Fund (SEF) has already launched calls for proposals for border problem areas in 2024, offering grants and reimbursable funds to local communities and businesses in 2025. The calls for proposals are or will be available for ten measures making just over 91 million euros of funding available, of which approximately 15 million euros will be available as grants and 76 million euros as reimbursable funds,” said Minister Jevšek.
“We have reached the final phase for adopting the agreements for the development of regions. We are in the phase of an in-depth review of the applications we have received, and we plan to sign the first agreements with the regions at the end of February,” said the Minister. The agreement on the development of regions is a Cohesion Policy mechanism that works from the bottom up. The development regions identify their needs and propose regional projects to be co-financed with Cohesion Policy funds.
One of the Ministry’s priorities is to amend the Promotion of Balanced Regional Development Act. After numerous consultations, coordination, and discussions within the Economic and Social Council (ESC) and a public debate, the adoption procedure of the mentioned act will follow shortly.
“The new Promotion of Balanced Regional Development Act will give regions a more significant role. We want to involve the regions in the territorial dialogue from the very beginning of the preparation of strategic and implementation documents and leave the decision on financing regional projects to the region. The regions will decide on regional projects according to their development objectives and priorities. We want development regions to be strong because a country is only as strong as its development regions, and I believe that the amendment to the act will make it easier to realise this objective,” Minister Jevšek commented on the amendments to the Promotion of Balanced Regional Development Act.
The Slovenian Regional Development Fund is a partner organisation of the Ministry of Cohesion and Regional Development. The Fund also implements public calls for proposals for the Ministry and thus significantly contributes to regional policy objectives. The Slovenian Regional Development Fund is performing well, achieving record results last year. 351 contracts were concluded with a total value of 70.2 million euros.