Stara Pazova, 28 July - The Municipality of Stara Pazova, on July 28, opened the building site for the construction of 38 social housing units to be built within the SIRP Programme.

This is the first phase of construction, which includes 38 apartments out of a total of 76 apartments for which the Italian Government is contributing with about 1,2 M euro, with the contribution of the Municipality of Stara Pazova of land and infrastructures.

The ground breaking ceremony took place in the presence of Mr. Srdjo Komazec, President of municipality, Mr. Miodrag Ralevic, Assistant Minister for Capital Investments, Ms. Elena Manunta Sardi da Letto, Director of Cooperazione Italiana, Ms. Ligia Ramirez, Head of UN-HABITAT Office Belgrade, Mr. Koncarevic, Acting Director of Public Company for Housing “Gea Plan”, as well as representatives of other municipal and city housing agencies established within the SIRP Programme.

Implementation of the SIRP Programme - Settlement and Integration of Refugees Programme directly resulted from the Memorandum signed between UN-HABITAT Executive Director Mrs. Anna Tibaijuka and the Government of Italy in September 2002. This 15 million euro programme is implemented both on central level, with the Ministry for Capital Investments, and on local level in seven selected municipalities/cities.