On March 30, 2023, the kick-off event of the RVO-funded project Government 2 Government (G2G) Expert Programme Green Cities Serbia took place. Gathering representatives from the Dutch Embassy in Belgrade, RVO, and Dutch companies part of RVO’s Partners for International Business (PIB) Serbia Green Cities cluster, the event allowed for the 3 participating Serbian cities – Kragujevac, Niš and Novi Sad – to connect with a pool of Dutch experts.
After a successful study visit facilitated by VNG International in May 2022, Serbian municipality officials have now drafted a list of challenges or projects they could use Dutch expertise on, through an expert programme, for the concrete cases of some of their municipalities, including Novi Sad, Niš and Kragujevac, a blend of large and touristic cities.
This year-long project is meant to help Serbian municipalities in their urban transition objectives through the Dutch expertise in the greening sector, while contributing to key Sustainable Development Goals. To that end, a pool of 3 Dutch experts have been matched to the city projects, in order to offer tailor-made advice, that is practical, actionable, and that tackles concrete roadblocks faced by Serbian municipalities in their pursuit of their green projects.
The objectives of this project are thus to:
- share the concepts, knowledge and benefits of Dutch green cities and urban greenery concepts to Serbian local authorities to improve sustainable and modern greening and urban landscape management in Serbia.
- contribute to SDGs, among which sustainable cities and communities (SDG 11) ; climate action (SDG 13) ; and good health & wellbeing (SDG 3).
- create future opportunities for Dutch companies to present their green city products and services on the Serbian and regional markets.
