INVESTMENT IN SMALL AND MEDIUM ENTERPRISES - DEVELOPMENT OPPORTUNITY OF PALILULA
20.04.2012
In Media Center, Nis, Palilula Municipality together with partner organizations: Construction Cluster "Opeka brick," City of Niš-Department of Planning and Construction and EKOPOLIS-Media Environmental Network of Serbia, presented to public a project called "Development and improvement of the competitiveness of SMEs in the field of improving energy efficiency housing ", which has been approved to the Municipality within the THIRD open call of LEDIB Programme (Local Economic Development Balkans). PhD Igor Novakovic, president of Palilula Municipality, Zarko Simovic, coordinator LEDIB, Ljubisa Jakovljevic, project manager and Dragan Vidojković, Manager Media EKOpolis ecological network spoke about the project activities.

The project worth 1.8 million dinars is focused on developing and improving the competitiveness of SMEs in the field of energy efficiency in buildings. It is important to our community, said president Novakovic, because the construction sector is very dynamic in the region, particularly in Palilula. This project, in the opinion of Novakaović, should increase energy efficiency and reduce costs in the terms of energy losses. The direct beneficiaries of our project, says Novakovic will be project companies, construction companies, manufacturers and distributors of building materials, experts in the field of energy efficiency. The overall objective is to contribute to creating and developing a business surrounding energy efficiency in the sector of small and medium enterprises and the specific objectives are to improve energy efficiency in residential and commercial buildings of Nisava District. We expect that upon completion of the project we could increase the competitiveness of the SME sector, to become more efficient and easier to find their place in the market.

For the second time Palilula Municipality has the best rated the best for its project from all municipalities supported byLEDIB in Nisava district-emphasized in a meeting with reporters Zarko Simovic, coordinator LEDIB. Cooperation of Palilula Municipality and LEDIB began by establishing the Center for Entrepreneurship. All projects that were done after that were some kind of upgrading of the project that we implemented 2009. This project is also from the economy field and aims to assist the construction industry primarily residential buildings. The project focuses on the increasing the competitiveness of SMEs in the field of energy efficiency. It is now a very popular topic in Europe and worldwide. Besides the implementation of several training and education, dedicated to owners of small and medium enterprises, Palilula Municipality will participate in the formation of independent body called the Council for Energy Efficiency. We hope, said Simovic, that we will have great results, in all the projects we have realized with Palilula Municipality.
On this occasion, a partner organization EKOPOLIS announced the contest for the best media (in the category of students) on the theme: "Barriers and Energy Efficiency in Buildings". The conditions of competition could be downloaded from the Municipal site. Within the numerous project activities it is also planned study trip to the Fair "Green building" in Italy. According to project manager Ljubisa Jakovljevic, 10 entrepreneurs in energy efficiency, the project team and experts from local government, will depart early in May to Verona.

LEDIB program, the Kingdom of Denmark, in accordance with the bilateral agreement of Denmark and the Serbian Government and the Poverty Reduction Strategy of Serbia, is aimed at supporting local economic development of the Balkans. The main objective of the project third call was to support local governments of Nisava District in their efforts to improve the rate of local economic development. Apparently the city municipality of Palilula although belongs to the poorest municipalities in the Republic of the population income level and living standards, recognized its path of development that leads to new jobs.