PM and Primorje-Gorski Kotar County officials discuss consequences of natural disaster

Prime Minister Zoran Milanovic met on Friday with the head of Primorje-Gorski Kotar County, Zlatko Komadina, and mayors from that region to discuss the removal of the consequences of a natural disaster that struck Gorski Kotar early this year and the region's long-term development, the government press service said in a statement.

Milanovic said that despite all the problems of living in Primorje-Gorski Kotar County, its transport links with Zagreb and Rijeka were better than ever before and that the index of development of municipalities in Gorski Kotar was relatively high, which he said were the facts that should be taken into account when dealing with its problems. He said that the government was seeking solutions to the region's problems and believed that Gorski Kotar had good development prospects.

The representatives of Primorje-Gorski Kotar County said that in addition to the natural disaster that hit the region early in 2014 the long-term development of this county was also adversely affected by the repeal of the law on mountainous areas and the manner of calculation of the development index. They said that negative demographic trends also had a negative impact on development and on access to services.

The Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Regional Development and EU Funds, Branko Grcic, gave reasons for the new categorisation of development aid. He said that 105 local government units which had previously not received aid were now covered by the aid scheme, while 80 local government units were excluded from the scheme, describing the whole system as fairer.

Grcic said that specific measures would be proposed for mountainous areas, as has been done for the Adriatic islands, and that special development programmes were being planned to slow down the negative demographic trends. The key source of financing for such projects should be EU funds.

(Hina)
 

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