Decentralization and digitalization is an extremely important process for citizens, so that they can receive all municipal services in a simpler way, without having to visit several institutional counters.
According to the Minister of Local Self-Government, Zlatko Perinski, the Law on Local Self-Government, which is currently stuck in the parliamentary procedure due to the absence of a deputy, is also beneficial to citizens and municipalities. According to him, this Government has shown its care for municipalities since the beginning of its mandate.
"What we need to work on in the area of digitalization, I certainly hope that we will find mechanisms, political wisdom and understanding on the part of the Assembly, regarding the proposed amendments to the Law on Local Self-Government to see the light of day. In general, as a department within the Government, we are maximally committed to providing support at any level of local government, not only financially, but also in terms of knowledge and support for overcoming their daily challenges. In the past 16-17 months, we managed to allocate funds in record amounts, approximately 20 billion denars for the implementation of about 1.200 projects.", - declared Perinski.
Regarding the digitalization of municipalities, the Ministry for Digital Transformation has published an announcement for the creation and regulation of municipal websites. About 50 municipalities have applied for this competition. This will provide easier access to municipal services for citizens.
"The first five municipalities with 3 institutions have begun consultations on the preparation of their websites. I expect that in the course of January and February the first websites will be launched. What we offer is a unified website that has connectivity to all state systems and services uslugi.com.mk, a portal for opening data, Government websites, unified security, access to municipal services and the information they provide.", - emphasized the Minister of Digital Transformation, Stefan Andonovski.
ZELS emphasizes that municipalities are facing financial problems, therefore, they should focus on the financial decentralization of municipalities, and this depends on the Ministry of Local Self-Government.
"The financial situation of the municipalities is very bad. By thanking the Government for these funds that it gave them twice last year, they managed to implement at least some infrastructure projects. The municipality cannot function with funds that it receives from the Government and expect someone from the Government to be merciful and give them money. It is very important to work on financial decentralization," emphasized the executive director of ZELS, Dushica Perišić.
The process of digitalization and decentralization is supported by the embassies of Switzerland and Sweden.
