On Thursday, 22 June 2017, at 11:30, official ceremony for signing of Grant Agreements will take place at the EU Info Centre in Skopje. The grants are part of the Municipal Rural Investment Project and will be signed with the mayors of the municipalities Sopishte and Cheshinovo-Obleshevo.
At the event, official addresses will be delivered by:
- H.E. Samuel Žbogar, Ambassador, Delegation of the European Union
- H.E. Dragan Tevdovski, Minister of Finance
- Mr. Marco Mantovanelli, World Bank Country Manager
- Mr. Stevce Trpkovski, Mayor of Sopishte municipality
- Mr. Kostadin Lichkov, Mayor of Cheshinovo-Obleshevo municipality
At request of the government, the European Union provided 15.5 million euro for rural infrastructure development in the country. The total amount of the program, including Government co-financing, is 20.6 million euro. The program will be implemented by the Ministry of Finance and administered by the World Bank, as part of the special, Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance (IPA) Rural Investment window, established under the World Bank Municipal Services Improvement Project (MSIP).
All 78 municipalities eligible to receive EU-IPA grants submitted their proposals under the first call for proposals in 2015. Many municipalities submitted more than one proposal, bringing the total number of sub-projects in the MSIP IPA component portfolio to 134.
Most sub-projects submitted under this EU-IPA window include construction, reconstruction and rehabilitation of local roads and public buildings, improvement of water supply and sewerage, green markets, and kindergartens. Other sub-projects include street lighting, solid waste management, sport and recreation, storm water management, etc.
The Ministry of Finance signed IPA grant agreements with 59 municipalities at the end of May 2017, for a total number of 101 sub-projects - with some municipalities signing more than one IPA grant agreement. Out of these 101 sub-projects, 8 sub-projects have been completed and 93 are under implementation or procurement.
Journalists and photographers are kindly invited to cover this event.
For more information, please contact John Mackedon in Washington at jmackedon@worldbank.org, and Anita Bozinovska in Skopje at abozinovska@worldbank.org, tel. +389 (0)2 3117 159.