GREEN INVESTMENTS AND NEW BUSSINESS TECHNOLOGIES
19.12.2013

Round table and other workshops were held in Ihtiman, Bulgaria, within the framework of the project "Living Green", under the CBC program Bulgaria-Serbia. The leaders of the partner municipalities in the project , Kaloyan Iliev , President of the Bulgarian municipality Ihtiman, and Boban Džunić, president of Palilula Municipality –Nis, have successfully evaluated the past activities of project teams, and recalled that the aim of the project is the "Promotion of sustainable development and strengthening of capacities for joint problem solving and exchange of experience in the field of environmental protection in the region, strengthening awareness - especially young from Ihtiman and Palilula on issues related to the environment, biodiversity conservation, environmentally sound behavior, energy saving and renewable energy, climate changes, cooperation and networking in the field of environmental protection and energy efficiency policies in educational and business level.

This is a partnership project of two municipalities in protecting the environment and raising awareness of our fellow citizens to protect the environment, said Boban Džunić, president of Municipality of Palilula. We will strengthen our capacity to protect the environment. We expect to contribute to raising awareness of our citizens. Earlier I pointed out, that to our estimate we can annually save about 70,000 euros in the city budget to the maintenance item, if only in our territory we reduce at least one wild dump. From the report of our registered public utility inspector, our municipality has about 25 locations - illegal dumps where unscrupulous people dispose of waste.

Ihtiman municipality has about 20,000 inhabitants and a very modest budget - said the host of the educational cycle of the project "Living Green" Kaloyan Iliev, Mayor of Ihtiman. The asset that has been approved by the EU, said Iliev, is to organize campaign about the importance of our surrounding space, removing any illegal landfills in the municipality and reconstruct our city stadium.

This project aims to increase accountability of our citizens towards the environment, and according to the project teams of two municipalities, it will promote new forms of interactive modules and best practices for joint capacity building in the field of environmental protection in the region.