Serbian Association of Regional Development Agencies (SARRA) was established in March 2016 as a non-profit association in order to achieve regional development goals in the Republic of Serbia. SARRA was established by 15 Accredited Regional Development Agencies (ARRAs).
SARRA was established to achieve the following objectives:
- Supporting the establishment of a legal and institutional framework for planning, organizing, coordinating and implementing development activities;
- Encouraging inter-municipal, inter-regional, cross-border and international cooperation on issues of common interest;
- Consultative activities with all subjects at the local, national and international level, with the aim of balanced regional development;
- Public advocacy for balanced regional development;
- Development of competitiveness at all levels;
- Reducing regional and inter-regional disparities in the degree of socio-economic development and living conditions, with an emphasis on encouraging the development of underdeveloped, devastated industrial and rural areas;
- Development of an economy based on knowledge, innovativeness, modern scientific and technological achievements and organization of management;
- Reduction of negative demographic trends;
- Education of citizens in different areas of socio-economic development
The bodies of the Association are the Assembly and the Steering Committee. The Assembly is composed of all members of the Association, while the Steering Committee has 5 members and represents the executive body of the Association, which takes care of the implementation of its goals.
SARRA covers over 95% of the territory of Serbia, the total number of employees in all member agencies is 126, while the project portfolio consists of more than 430 projects worth more than 100 million euros.
SARRA was established in order to enable more efficient ARRA participation in planning processes in the domain of regional development, processes of development of programs for support to SMEs and entrepreneurship, attracting and supporting processes to investors, cross-sectoral linkage processes as well as better positioning of ARRAs in inter-municipal cooperation processes, EU integration processes and efficient use of funds.
SARRA is involved in the implementation of national programs for regional development with the Serbian Development Agency, while SARRA representatives are appointed by the Ministry of European Integration in the negotiating group for Chapter 22 - Regional Policy and Coordination of Structural Instruments, which is essential for creating the bases for an efficient model of balanced territorial development in the Republic of Serbia.