The World is Beautiful Because of Its Colourfulness, Not Because of The Uniformity

Equality is not uniformity, but learning, understanding and accepting diversity.

Serbia is undergoing a great transformation, while there is a noticeable reduction in regional differences. The Minister of Balanced Regional Development, Edin Djerlek, talked to us about how the differences between Belgrade and the rest of the country are decreasing and how many villages and small communities are once again becoming desirable places to live.

How much has Serbia done in terms of balanced regional development since you became the line minister?

The Cabinet’s key activities, which I have been at the helm of for less than a year, go in three directions – systemic and institutional improvement of regional development policy, boosting the medium institutional level of regional development through the affirmation of regional strategic planning, increasing the capacity and role of accredited regional development agencies, greater degree of vertical coordination and networking at all three levels (central, regional and local) and encouraging regional growth through co-financing of important regional and local projects in various areas.

Strong coordination of regional development subjects was established at the vertical and horizontal level, for the first time in Serbia. We have increased the capacities of regional development agencies and local governments through more than 90 development projects.

SMALL AND LARGE PLACES SOMETIMES SEEM LIKE DIFFERENT WORLDS, IN ONE, TIME FLOWS MORE SLOWLY, WHILE, IN THE OTHER, QUICKLY

Within the framework of the systemic and institutional improvement of regional development policy, I am particularly proud of a study we drafted called “New Measurement Model for the Level of Development in Municipalities and Cities in the Republic of Serbia”. As a result study, we now have a new methodology for measuring the level of development and, based on it, a new uniform list showing the level of development of cities and municipalities, given that the previous one was outdated and did not reflect the real situation. Now you can get a very precise regional picture of the situation in the municipalities and identify priority areas for investments.

From the perspective of someone who is originally from Novi Pazar, how do you see the relationship between the Serbian province and its capital? Have the village/town, capital/province differences been reduced and how?

I’ve been working hard on that for the past year. The methodology, study and uniform list of the development level of cities and municipalities is not something that we will secretly keep to ourselves, but we are willing to leave our knowledge to the government so that it can continue on the same path. It doesn’t matter to me whether I or someone else will do that job, it’s important to me that the people in Serbia feel the difference and I’m happy that I contributed to that. To reduce the differences, we need to closely monitor the situation on the ground and have an institution like the Ministry for Balanced Regional Development, which then makes targeted investments and gaps in the differences between and within the regions. As I said before, we have already made a significant step forward compared to the previous situation. We did a lot and yet there is still much work to be done. It is very important to approach this with dedication and responsibility/, and I believe that my and the Ministry’s team’s approach was very good and a source of pride for both us and the people in Serbia.

I was born in Belgrade, but I grew up both in Belgrade and in Novi Pazar. Considering that my father is from Novi Pazar, I spent a large part of my childhood in Novi Pazar. It may be strange to some people that, as a child born in Belgrade, I couldn’t wait to spend as much time as possible in a smaller city. I am inextricably linked to Novi Pazar, so I feel like I always have two homes and my own two cities. Small and large places sometimes seem like different worlds, in one, time flows more slowly, while, in the other, quickly. The capital offers variety and it is a beehive of activity, but Novi Pazar, as well as places similar to it, gives a feeling of tranquillity, intimacy and belonging. We must not ignore them, as they have their enormous potential. People from smaller towns who prosper in Belgrade and other larger cities demonstrate this.

In terms of living in rural areas, it is obvious that living there is never going to be the same as living in a city, but that is not the goal. The goal is to live dignified, beautiful, decent lives in the villages as well because they feed the country.

To what extent has globalization contributed to the erasure of civilizational differences between the countryside and the city, capital cities and provinces, powerful superpowers and third-world countries?

Globalization has brought many good things, but also many challenges. It has helped us to turn the world into a global village, communicate from one end of the world to the other, and have an insight into other cultures - news travels fast and globalization is a kind of new wave of people’s enlightenment. We must be grateful for that, but at the same time, aware of the problems it brings. It is important to use insight into different cultures to become more tolerant and more reasonable, but we must not allow ourselves to completely merge and completely lose cultural authenticity. The world is beautiful because of its colourfulness, not because of uniformity. Equality is not uniformity, but learning, understanding and accepting diversity.

It is important to take advantage of the global market, but also to keep in mind that now, more than ever, every earthquake in any country in the world affects all others and therefore us too. Consequently, we must always know how to position ourselves and how to minimize possible damage.

Technological progress has brought us the availability of information, with knowledge being available at the click of a button and this is something that must be used for even regional development. With this in mind, we influenced the digitalization and modernization of our municipalities in order to improve the quality of services we provide to our citizens. Smaller places must and can keep up with the world. These seem like small steps, but they are steps that still take us forward and make a noticeable difference.

We can see that residents of big cities, especially Belgrade, are increasingly becoming aware of the advantages of living in smaller areas. Why does that happen?

I believe a number of things led to this. During the coronavirus pandemic, many residents of big cities, especially metropolises like Belgrade, saw how it doesn’t take much to feel trapped in your big town. It suddenly became unimportant that you lived in a city with millions of inhabitants and you could see how privileged people from smaller towns are. The community spirit in small communities is sometimes stronger and more sensitive than in busy, spacious environments. During the pandemic, moving from the city to a village (or a smaller place) became a global trend.

On the other hand, we have to come to a full circle at some point and I am looking forward to that to a great extent. People moved en masse to big cities in search of a more comfortable life and now many, especially young people, are turning to small towns in search of a more peaceful life. This is wonderful news for Serbia because few things are as sad as empty schools and kindergartens.

I believe that the entire government’s work also contributed to this. I believe that the Ministry for Balanced Regional Development has also done its share. We focused all of our work on smaller communities - we co-financed projects and supported everyone who wanted, together with us, to contribute to the betterment of their communities. To further improve the quality of life of our citizens, we invested in sewage and water supply grids wherever necessary, as well as in a number of roads that connect our villages with cities. Furthermore, we allocated resources to business and industrial zones to fully equip them and thus create the prerequisites for attracting investors and creating new jobs. We had significant allocations for the reconstruction and rehabilitation of a large number of cultural centres, children’s playgrounds, schools and sports infrastructure. All of this is of key importance for the growth and development of our regions and this is precisely what attracts people to immigrate or return to these areas.

What are the underdeveloped areas of Serbia today and how did we end up in a situation where the once most developed and advanced regions became neglected and lost their population (Banat County, for example)?

There are several chronological determinants of regional disparities in Serbia. Regional inequalities are a systemic multi-decade problem, which became more pronounced during the transition process and further escalated from 2009 to 2014, after the 2008 global financial crisis. The causes of regional disparities are multiple - inherited inequalities, effects of privatization and transition, incomplete institutional infrastructure, lack of coordination of sectoral and development policy, etc. Furthermore, Serbia’s regional development policy is continuously influenced by the implementation of the reform agenda.

The first thing that is important to point out is that we managed to stop the growing trend of regional disparities and that the trend of regional convergence has started. As a reminder, at the macro-region level (NSTJ-2), regional disparities, observed through GDP per capita, are decreasing (from 2.72:1 in 2012 to 2.26:1 in 2021). Secondly, in the same period, a comparative analysis of regional purchasing power, in relation to the EU average, shows a trend of convergence of all regions - the Belgrade region (from 68.5% of the EU average in

2012 to 72% in 2021), the Vojvodina region (from 40 .6% to 42.7%), the region of Šumadija and Western Serbia (from 27.1% to 30.3%) and the region of Southern and Eastern Serbia (from 25.2% to 31.9%). Thirdly, regional convergence is also increasing at lower levels, i.e. disparities at the level of regional areas (NSTJ-3), measured by GVA per capita (gross value added per capita) in the period from 2015 to ties in 2015 to 33 in 2022) and the dynamic growth of some areas that have managed to attract foreign investors. Today, compact undeveloped areas are located in the South of Serbia, in the Pčinja and Jablanica regions, and the area of Sandžak. These two regions have municipalities that failed to attract investors due to undeveloped infrastructure capacities. The areas in Banat are will continue to co-finance projects, listen to the needs of citizens and help in every way to facilitate balanced regional development.

On the other hand, and in parallel, we need to continue working on improving the institutional framework of the balanced regional development policies in Serbia. In this context, several key tasks in the coming period must be done to achieve more even regional growth and development.

Firstly, we need to proceed with the adoption of the new Law on Regional Development, as the previous one was passed in 2009 and is outdated and dysfunctional in certain parts and hinders the improvement of regional development policy.

Secondly, we need to draft special regional development programmes for areas with special development problems.

2021 and it was reduced from 4:1 to 3.65:1. The effects of the applied growth model, which was based on the attracting FDI and export growth, contributed the most to this.

The current regional development map of Serbia is a consequence of two factors: the dynamic growth rate of the economy (average annual growth rate of 3.2% from 2015 to2021) and the effects of the demographic transition, which is in its final phase and is reflected in the processes such as depopulation (population decline of 7.5%) and demographic ageing of the population (the average age was 42.2 years in 2012 and 43.8 years 10 years later). Demographic transition is a characteristic of all countries in the region - Bulgaria, Serbia, Hungary, Croatia and Romania.

Dynamic growth at the national level caused the repositioning of those areas that had a higher growth rate than the national average. Concrete results of this are a smaller number of underdeveloped areas (from 44 municipali- not lagging in development and the regional picture of Banat is heterogeneous - the fastest growing are small municipalities in the area of the South Banat region (GDP per capita was EUR 3,500 in 2015 and EUR 6,500 in 2021), while slower growth was seen in municipalities in the North Banat region (from EUR 3,500 to EUR 4,700) and the Middle Banat region (from EUR 3,800 to EUR 4,900).

What are the Ministry’s plans and ongoing projects that facilitate balanced regional development?

A few days ago, we awarded 84 grants to young, and female entrepreneurs in the value of 250,000 dinars each under the auspices of the Development of Youth and Female Entrepreneurship in Pčinja and Jablanica Districts project. My goal is to work on support programmes that will focus on people with disabilities and marginalized groups. I am glad that we contributed to Serbia winning the organization of EXPO 2027 and the magnitude of that success will be felt by all Serbian citizens. We

And thirdly, we need to continue facilitating regional strategic development planning by boosting the capacities of accredited regional development agencies.

Which areas in Serbia show great progress? Can you single out some regions that you foresee a bright future for?

As I said earlier, the dynamic growth rate based on the model of attracting foreign, export-oriented investors and the construction of important regional infrastructure contributed to significantly more dynamic growth in some areas. The Bor region (cumulative growth of GVA per capita from 2015 to 2021 was 157%), Danube region (67%), Srem region (50%), South Banat region (49%) and Rasina region (47%) all achieved great results.

The construction of large-scale infrastructure, which is ongoing, especially the Moravian Corridor, creates the prerequisites for the propulsive growth of a large number of regional areas in the central part of the Republic. In terms of compact underdeveloped and border areas, the state needs to draft special programmes with significant incentive instruments.