Zrenjanin, 13.02.2020. - The new, refurbished webpage of the City of Zrenjanin and the City Assembly of Zrenjanin was officially launched today. It will allow the citizens to be better informed about the work of the local representatives, as well as to contact them and offer suggestions.

With the support of the Government of Switzerland, the official webpage of the city was redesigned, and now it includes a separate portal for the City Assembly, a budget portal, and a special segment for open data and Sustainable Development Goals. The budget portal will provide information to the citizens and allow them to submit proposals to the city officials already in the budget planning phase.

The development of the new webpage was implemented by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), which engaged the Innovation Centre of the School of Electrical Engineering of Belgrade University.

“The role of local parliaments is to represent the interests of the citizens and facilitate debate on different ideas, with the aim to find the best solution. At the same time, they play an important role in overseeing the work of local governments, as well as the process of budget adoption. The refurbished webpage of the City Assembly of Zrenjanin, which includes a separate budget portal, opens a new way for the citizens to participate in decision making concerning the budget. The citizens have access to budget information, and they can submit their own proposals. This dialogue about the budget will result in building trust between the citizens and the local government,” explained Sascha Müller, Head of the Governance Domain of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation.

“Local parliaments are the highest representative body of citizens, and it is important that they improve their efficiency and introduce new tools to communicate with the citizens. The budget portal is a unique app that we have developed for the City Assembly of Zrenjanin. In this segment, for the first time ever, the citizens will have information about the local revenues and expenses, and the budget overview per local community offices. They will also be able to submit proposals and vote for the projects proposed by the local government,” said Biljana Ledeničan, UNDP Portfolio Manager. 

According to Duško Radišić, Assistant to the Mayor of Zrenjanin, the new webpage of the City of Zrenjanin was created not only because the old webpage needed a redesign and functional improvements, but also because it reflects a change of concept in the City’s relationship with the citizens. It is now an important mechanism in the transformation process of the local administration, which is becoming a service for the citizens.

The support to the City of Zrenjanin is provided through the Project Strengthening the Oversight Role and Transparency of the Parliament, implemented by UNDP and funded by the Government of Switzerland, which is taking place in selected cities in the past seven years.