Brussels: Minister Ivanović attends ministerial conference on strengthening rural development

Brussels, Belgium (8 April 2014) -- On the second day of his visit to Brussel, Montenegro’s Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Petar Ivanović participated in the ministerial conference on strengthening rural development actors, which was held in Brussels.

The conference was chaired by Dacian Ciolos, the Eu Commissioner of agriculture and rural development, who congratulated Montenegro’s Agriculture Ministry and the Network for Rural Development on successfully implemented projects, adding the importance of involving all stakeholders interested in the development of agriculture in strengthening the bottom-up processes.

"There are no universal solutions, every country has to find its own solution leading to the fastest development," Commissioner Ciolos noted.

Today's conference is a continuation of the European institutions representatives’ recent visit to Montenegro and the Western Balkan countries.The conference participants are positively evaluated Montenegro’s progress, emphasising a number of concrete examples, such as gradual revival of neglected households, education of farmers, strengthening cooperation with rural population, acceleration of crucal legislation adoption and other achievements.

The conference predominantly dealt with the issues of human resources, population attrition from rural areas, possible solutions for rapid development, importance of the European Commission’s support programmes, etc.

Addressing the conference, Minister Ivanović presented the most important values Montenegro's Ministry of Agriculture cherishes: change of thinking through targeted support for specific sectors of agriculture, education of farmers, joint cooperation of local population, municipalities and the Ministry, strengthening farmers' associations, strengthening the notion that Montenegro can make significant progress in transforming agriculture into agribusiness.

"I'm glad that became convinced the Montenegrin agriculture has potential and that you met with hard-working farmers, who are proud of being engaged in agriculture and who see their future in it," Minister Ivanović said with regard to positive comments set forth by the conference participants.