The Round table was held on 24th of May 2018 in Jimbolia – Romania, with participation of project team and other target group representatives. The main topic and title of the event was “Improving economic cooperation of border regions and to exploit the new opportunities brought by the IBC project” and participants had the opportunity to exchange its attitude, knowledge and experience about main obstacles, but also on ways for improvement economic cooperation of border regions. Conclusions from the round table presented base for the elaboration of Recommendations for overcoming the existing challenges in the economy field, intended to encourage the implementation of actions that promote sustainable mobility and accessibility in the economy field and consequently improve living conditions and better quality of transport of goods and people.

The 3rd Project Team meeting took place on Wednesday, 16th of May 2018 in Belgrade, at the Lead Beneficiary PE “Roads of Serbia”, Belgrade, and started at 14:00 o’clock (SER time). The meeting was leaded by the Project Manager – Biljana Vuksanović, according to following topics from the agenda, previously discussed and approved by the project partners:
• Presentation of implemented activities within the project
• Monitoring the progress of the project and undertaking corrective actions if necessary
• Organization of Round table in Jimbolia
• Debate on the status of public procurement procedures
• Debate on the most important activities that lie ahead

The project, “Improvement of Banat Connectivity (IBC), was created from the needs of the inhabitants along both sides of the border, for better interconnection and passability. Although this border crossing belongs to the international category, it operates only from 7.00 to 19.00 hours daily, and it is allowed the transport of goods with vehicles of a maximum carrying capacity up to 3.5 t. With the planned works on the Serbian side, it will be created the necessary technical conditions, as well as the security and control standards that already exist on the Romanian side of the border. Thus, it is envisaged that a roof over the control room will be built, additional control booths will be provided, as well as electronic ramps for each traffic lane, video surveillance and light signalization. The project also envisages the construction of a toilet for passengers, as well as a space where will be possible the work of the post office, banks, freight forwarders, etc… In order to create technical conditions for the transport of goods with vehicles of higher capacity, platforms for controlling freight vehicles will be provided. By ensuring all previous technical conditions, the Serbian ministries of foreign and internal affairs will have additional arguments for amending the existing interstate agreement in terms of day-to-day financing (24h) and can also transport trucks through it. Given the proximity of the inhabited places, and the fact that Kikinda is located only 10 kilometers from the border, by construction of the bicycle lane, connections will be even more dynamic.

By the project, cooperation of the twin cities Kikinda and Jimbolia is raised up to the higher level; the connection has switched to a certain level of economic cooperation on the micro level, as well as the activities of the two local governments in resolving problems in the communal sphere. The macroeconomic plan has the biggest effect, which we expect to be even more significant when the project is realized. Due to the lack of labor in the western Romanian counties and the inability of Romanian and foreign companies to develop there, they had to look for another solution, and it’s called Kikinda. The first such step was made by the company “Zopas” from Semiclus mare, which was threatened with losing new jobs, as it could not increase further production in its Romanian border plant. Therefore, they opened a plant in Kikinda, which for the past year and a half, from the starter 30 workers, reached 440 workers and that during that time, no job at the main factory in Semiclus mare was abolished.

The realization of the IBC project will fully meet the objectives of the Interreg IPA Cross-Border Cooperation Program Romania-Serbia, in which the project is being implemented and already in the field, the needs of people and the economy prove its unequivocal sustainability and expediency. The project is implemented by PC “Roads of Serbia”, as the project leader, the City of Kikinda, the Municipality of Jimbolia and the Regional Center for Socio – Economic Development Banat, as partners on the project, with the aim of contributing to better connectivity in the cross – border area through improvement of quality standards in public transport and mobility services, and the total value of the project is 1,813,477.53 €.

The 2nd Project Team meeting of the project “Improvement of Banat Connectivity – IBC” took place on 6th of January 2018 in Kikinda. The meating was led by Biljana Vuksanović – project manager.
At the meeting, the project activities implemented so far were presented. To all members are presented so far implemented project activities in the project. It was concluded that most of the implemented activities are in line with the action plan of the project.
The coordinators presented the activities that need to be implemented in the upcoming period, and all the participants of the meeting agreed on the dynamics of realization of the activities, responsibilities and methodology for its implementation.

On Wednesday, November 15, 2017. in Jimbolia (Romania) an initial conference of the project from the INTERREG-IPA Cross-Border Cooperation Program Romania-Serbia was held under the title “Improvement of Banat Connectivity“. The project is conducted by Public Enterprise “Roads of Serbia” as a project leader, and Kikinda town, Municipality of Žombolj and Regional agency for socio- economic development (RDA Banat) are partners on the project, gathered with the goal of contributing to better connectivity in the cross-border area, through improvement of quality standards in public transport and mobility services.

Darius Postelnica (Municipality of Žombolj), Saša Tanackov (city of Kikinda), Irena Živković (RDA Banat) and Bojana Stankovic (Public Enterprise “Roads of Serbia”)  spoke at the conference about the project in front of the project partners. They pointed out that one of the main preconditions for realization of this goal is adequate infrastructure witch includes: preparing a technical documentation for the traffic infrastructure in Serbia, equipping the border crossing Nakovo (Serbia) and construction of a two-way bicycle route in the area between Kikinda and border crossing Nakovo as well as works on the streets repare along the state road in Jimbolia (Romania).

In addition to activities that improve infrastructure, the project will also establish the Office for information and promotion of cross-border economic cooperation with the aim of improving the conditions for the border crossing of people, goods and services, and overcoming the perception of the border as a barrier and promoting stronger cooperation and contacts between border regions and communities.

The realization of the project started in August of the current year and will last for 24 months, and total value of the project is 1,813,477.53 euros, while the works on equipping the border crossing Nakovo (Serbia) are further financed by the Kikinda town, in the total value of 477,731.43 euros.

The 1st Project Team meeting took place on Tuesday, 29^th of August 2017 in Kikinda with presence of majority of project team members and project partners expert. At the first part of meeting was presented Activity plan which containing the project activities & sub activities, outputs, deliverables and the related timeframe. Communication plan was also presented, which defined internal and external communication within the project, i.e. set out the information and publicity measures that will be taken to promote the transparency and visibility of the “Improvement of Banat Connectivity”. Both plans were prepared by RDA Banat and adopted by project team.

The Joint Steering Committee (JSC) of the project „Improvement of Banat Connectivity“ was established by Decision of the Lead beneficiary – Public Enterprise “Roads of Serbia”. All members and partners that attended the meeting expressed a good understanding of the project and strong will and desire to contribute to the successful work of project.