The Third Forum of the Local Economic Development Offices of Sumadija and Pomoravlje was organised by the Regional Economic Development Agency of Sumadija and Pomoravlje, and took place on Divcibare mountain, in the hotel “Vujic”, from 1 to 3 July 2011.

The participants of the Forum were representatives of the local communities’ senior managements, finance departments, budget and tresor of the local self-managements, as well as representatives of the Local Economic Development Offices from the municipalities/ cities of Sumadija and Pomoravlje. The Forum gathered 34 representatives of 13 local communities of Sumadija and Pomoravlje who were presented a new approach to budgeting in local communities’ administrations – the Programme Budgeting. The new model was developed and presented by Mr. Sasa Kristic (Maxima Consulting). This innovative model is not only a budgeting, i.e. financial document, but an important instrument of management.

The first day of Forum, after introduction about the topics and objectives of the Forum, the main presentation was about the changed approach to budgeting in public sector and one of the potential models of programme budgeting for the local self-managements in the Republic of Serbia. The proposed model gives the answer to the future legal obligation (by the end of 2014) according to which it will be necessary to introduce  the programming approach to budget planning, as one of the conditions set by the European Commission to the Republic of Serbia and its local communities’ managements, in the process of Accession and Association to European Union.

The second day of Forum, presented was the methodology of creation, implementation, evaluation and revision of the Strategy of Sustainable Development of Sumadija and Pomoravlje for 2011-2021. One of the key points of the presentation was the list of selected and proposed regional projects for annual action plan of implementation for the period September 2011 to September 2012. The presented regional strategic process and all its segments were viewed from the aspect of programme budgeting, i.e. through the opportunity for more than one municipalities to gather arround one project and join the funds for its implementation. Presented and discussed were possibilities of applying programme budgeting at both local and regional levels, bearing in mind opening of the pre-accession funds of EU (IPA 3,4 and 5).

The workshop with the topic “Developping of the budget programme” started after the presentation of the list of projects and strategic planning methodology, and the presentation of the process of programme budgeting. The topic of the workshop was development of budgeting programme for 5 selected regional projects from the proposed annual action plan of implementation of the regional strategy.  Participants of the workshop were devided in 5 groups, each of which had a task to define budget programme for each of five projects:

• “Partnership for Rural Development of Sumadija and Pomoravlje” (proposed by REDASP)
  
• “Development of Automotive Cluster of Central Serbia” (proposed by the Regional Chambre of Commerce, Kragujevac)
  
• “Development of the supply chain in wine industry of Sumadija and Pomoravlje” (proposed by REDASP)
  
• “Regional centre for talented students” (proposed by the District School Administration, Jagodina)
• “Fruit production for the youth of Sumadija and Pomoravlje” (proposed by Topola municipality).

Every group presented their programme budgets, followed by the discussion, after which the second working day of the Forum ended.

The third day of the Forum was reserved for conclusions and suggestions  for the future cooperation and suggestions for improvement of the Forum. The main results of the Forum are the conclusions and recommendations related to implementation of the programme budgeting principle, as an instrument for development management.