State Secretary at the Ministry for Human and Minority Rights, Public Administration and Local Self-Government Dusko Radakovic and representative of the Swedish Institute of Public Administration Alf Person signed today the agreements on implementation of seven projects in the field of modernisation of public administration.

Speaking at a press conference after the signing of the documents, Radakovic explained that these are the first seven projects by state bodies chosen to be financed through the Project Fund for Institutional Development.

This fund was established in line with the Agreement on the implementation of the project "Support to Public Administration Reform in Serbia 2010-2013", which Serbia and Sweden signed late in 2010.

He explained that the initial funding of the Project Fund for Institutional Development for the 2011-2014 period, provided by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency, is approximately €700,000.

This is the first out of six calls to state bodies to apply for funding in the next three years, Radakovic said and added that the new round of distribution of funds will be in early February.

The Office of the National Council for Decentralisation of Serbia received €24,950 for its projects, while the Ministry for Human and Minority Rights, Public Administration and Local Self-Government received €24,620.

The Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs was granted €13,390 for the project of improvement of the procedure of keeping the register of trade unions, while the Serbian Seismological Centre received €22,000 for the improvement of the procedure of providing data on seismic conditions in the construction of buildings.

The Ministry of Economy and Regional Development received €19,120 for modernisation of the existing database on business infrastructure.