Study visit to Macedonia in the context of the administrative-territorial reform

A delegation consisting of representatives of the central and local administration and  NGOs performs a visit to Macedonia, during October 29 – November 2. The goal of the visit is to learn from the experience of territorial organization within the decentralization process.

The study, which is the first stage of the undertaken project, will be followed by an international conference on decentralization held in Chisinau in November, which will be attended by the Macedonian experts.

The participants will be able to acquire knowledge about the model of territorial organization in this country. They have expressed a special interest towards intermunicipal cooperation and stated that the Macedonian model can be easily applied in Moldova. The Macedonian officials also said that the similarities between the economies of Moldova and Macedonia can underpin business visits in both countries and economic cooperation.

Among Western Balkan countries, only Macedonia managed to realize a structural division in units sustainable from economic point of view, undertaking an administrative-territorial reform in 2010. In that respect the Macedonian model of implementation has a special relevance due to similarities that it has with Moldova in terms of geography, population etc. Therefore the Moldovan counterparts are interested to learn from first-hand resources if their approach could be considered successful since the implementation of the administrative territorial reform. At the same time, the study visit to Moldova of foreign experts from Macedonia but also from some EU member countries dealing with ATR issues could serve as a good opportunity for bringing on table these issues to be addressed with a larger public, pushing the Moldovan authorities to fulfil their commitments.

The study visit to Macedonia is organized by Business Consulting Institute and the Institute for Dynamic Development SFERA-NOVA (Macedonia) with the financial support of the East East Beyond Borders Program of the Soros Foundation Moldova and the Foundation Open Society - Macedonia.