EU PROGRES

South and South-West Serbian municipalities presented 16 proposals for the branding of their areas and produce at a seminar held on Mt. Kopaonik on 29 and 30 March with the support of the European Partnership with Municipalities Programme – EU PROGRES.

According to Mr. Tom Buncle, the Managing Director of the British company Yellow Railroad specialising in branding and providing consultancy support to EU PROGRES, the quality of the applications and their presentations was very high. “Everyone put an enormous amount of effort into preparing their branding submissions, as well as energy and creativity in presenting them. This shows the potential of South and South West Serbia – firstly in the domestic market, but also in the international market for several tourism destinations and natural produce. A major opportunity for many municipalities with similar appeals lies in working together through a “clustering” approach to achieve synergy and greater market impact,” Mr. Buncle said.   

“This workshop enabled close cooperation among representatives of municipalities regardless of what region they come from. We all had the feeling that we were on the same mission, working for the good of our country. We succeeded in proving that the differences among the municipalities can be overcome by good mutual communication. Regional branding necessitates in the cooperation of all stakeholders. We identified a slight weak point in communication at the start of the workshop but, by the end of the workshop, we managed to overcome it and recognise each other as partners. We exchanged business cards and clinched some business agreements,” Vesna Djordjevic, the representative of the Leskovac Regional Chamber of Commerce Business Information Centre, said.

Consultancy Yellow Railroad will conduct a detailed analysis of all branding proposals in the following month and recommend to EU PROGRES to support the implementation of at least five project proposals during the year. The European Union and the Government of Switzerland have allocated around 300,000 Euros for supporting branding-related activities in South and South-West Serbia to support the socio-economic development of these areas.

“Importantly however, everyone who participated should benefit from this process. This is because they have thought hard and analysed their competitive strengths and market position, which will give them a sound strategic base on which to build their brand for the future, regardless of whether their projects are selected for funding or not,” Mr. Buncle added.