Minister of Economy and Regional Development Nebojsa Ciric and Head of the EU in Serbia Vincent Degert presented today in Aleksandrovac cheques for 29 projects to stimulate regional development in Serbia.

The projects were selected out of a total of 234 submitted, within the EU funded project worth €10.8 million.

Ciric stressed the enormous importance of these projects because they will help more balanced regional development and will create new jobs.

The Minister said that the EU spends about 35% of the budget for regional policy and that there is room for Serbia to participate.

Ciric said that the value of projects that were not accepted is about €100 million and explained that they were not accepted only because the programme did not plan to include such a number of projects.

These projects should be improved to get the funds in the future, he said.

Degert pointed out that the EU expects creating between 5,000 and 10,000 new jobs through these projects.

According to him, it is important that projects are implemented outside Belgrade, in order to avoid monocentric development of Serbian economy.

Degert said by supporting projects such as viticulture project in Aleksandrovac, the EU wants to show that there is no contradiction between modernity and tradition and that tradition is a value fostered by the EU .

Tradition is something that all regions should keep and develop traditional industries such as viticulture, apiculture, the production of cheese, Degert said.

These 29 projects will be financed in different amounts, ranging from €75,000 to €1 million and will be implemented later this year and next year.

Aleksandrovac municipality is the holder of the projects called "The value chain of high quality Serbian wine –Knight's Wine”, worth €510,000.

This project will contribute to improving the chain of production, quality and marketing of the Serbian wine, as well as opportunities for education and networking of manufacturers