The Regional Cooperation Council (RCC) Secretariat will launch a series of consultative workshops in Skopje on 10 September, presenting the draft South East Europe (SEE) 2020 strategy to a wide range of interested stakeholders. The main intention of the workshop is to engage in broader consultations on the final draft of the SEE 2020 strategy and expand the stakeholders’ base to include governments/line ministries, regional initiatives, civil society, private business sector, donors and other interested parties.

The basic goal of the SEE 2020 strategy is to improve living conditions in the region and bring competitiveness and development back in focus. In that sense, the document draws inspiration from the EU strategy Europe 2020. Its most important targets include: employment growth from 39% to 44%, increase of total regional trade turnover by more than double, from 94 to 210 billion euro, the rise of the region’s GDP per capita from current 36% to 44% of the EU average, and addition of 300,000 highly qualified people to the workforce.

Achieving these targets should contribute to generating 1 million new jobs in South East Europe by 2020. To make this happen, innovation, skills and trade must be upgraded and national governments will need to be far more efficient than they are nowadays.

After Skopje, the workshops will take place in Prishtina (11 September), Podgorica (13 September), Sarajevo (16 September), Zagreb (17 September), Belgrade (18 September), and the concluding workshop in Tirana on 1 October 2013.

The events are being organized in cooperation with respective ministries in Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Montenegro, Kosovo* and Serbia.