Belgrade, 1st March 2006

The ground breaking ceremony of the first site for the construction of social housing units in Serbia was held in Kragujevac on the 1st of March, in presence of Mr. Daniel Biau, Director of UN-HABITAT Regional and Technical Cooperation Division, H.E. Velimir Ilic Minister for Capital Investments, H.E. Alessandro Merola Ambassador of Italy in Serbia, the Mayor of the City of Kragujevac, representatives of the Kragujevac City Housing Agency, and Mayors of the other six Municipalities beneficiaries of the UN-HABITAT Programme.

The site will see the construction of the first 32 social housing units of a total of 96, for which the Italian Government is contributing with about 1,2M Euro and the City of Kragujevac is contributing land and infrastructure, equivalent to approximately 30% of total costs.

Construction of these apartments represents a new step in the development of the social housing system, carried on at Republic and municipal level with support of UN-HABITAT (SIRP Programme).
The first public rental apartments will be handed over to beneficiaries by the end of 2006. Opening of other building sites in SIRP Municipalities will happen during 2006.

Known as the Settlement and Integration of Refugees Programme in Serbia (SIRP), the programme was initiated through a memorandum between UN-HABITAT's Executive Director Mrs. Anna Tibaijuka and the Government of Italy in September 2002. The Government of Italy is financing this Programme with a 15 million Euro contribution. UN-HABITAT, in collaboration with the Ministry of Capital Investments, is implementing the programme with the Municipalities of Cacak, Kragujevac, Kraljevo, Nis, Pancevo, Stara Pazova and Valjevo.

The ceremony followed SIRP Programme Second Steerning Committee meeting held in Belgrade on February 28th. The Committee adopted the 2006 Work Plan for the implementation of the programme.