Форуми во заедницата

 Around 60 citizens of Bitola, attending the second forum session that took place on the 20th December in the school Elpida Karamandi in Bitola as part of the Community Forums Programme, identified the problems in their municipality.

 The forum, at which the municipal representative Toni Stojchevski presented the competences of the local government and the financing of municipal projects, comprised additional structuring and forming of working tables at which the citizens of Bitola will determine and harmonize their interests and priorities during the following forum sessions.
    Thirteen working tables were formed: primary and secondary education, university education, pensioners, tourism and catering, health services, environment, cultural activities, business sector and entrepreneurs, youth, local self-government, industry, social services and IT sector.
    The attendants at each of these tables pointed out three municipal problems, which were then grouped in four groups of problems, to be dealt with by a specific working group.
    The problems are: inadequate traffic infrastructure, inadequate communal and public services, insufficient tourist promotion, and insufficient number of sports and leisure facilities. The working group is an operating body that works at the forum sessions, but has no right to vote.
    Bitola is one of the eight municipalities chosen for the second cycle for the second phase of the Programme, which should include around 25 municipalities in the next three years.
    The total budget of the Programme is six million MKD, four of which are a donation from the Swiss Development and Cooperation Agency (SDC), and two million MKD are participation of the municipality.