Istria Seeks Financing of 58 Public Projects Worth 1.8 Billion Kuna

As Novac/Barbara Ban writes on the 15th of October, 2020, Istria is requesting that 58 of its public projects worth 1.8 billion kuna in total be included in the list of countries for funding from the European Fund for Recovery and Resilience.

These are projects that are already under implementation, as well as projects that have been prepared and which need sources of funding. There is a bit of everything among these public projects – from building schools, to arranging the Pula breakwater, homes for the elderly and infirm, to investing in the Pula General Hospital and the Martin Horvat Special Hospital in Rovinj, the digitalisation of public administration, thereconstruction of the county building and things regarding Pula’s city administration.

”These are projects that we applied for after the selection of as many as 350 different projects. We started with the selection of projects on August the 20th, in cooperation with Istrian towns and municipalities. Some are already in their implementation phase. I believe that the Government will recognise our projects and include them in its programme,” said Istria County Prefect Fabrizio Radin. By the way, the county itself was the one to propose 27 projects worth 1.1 billion kuna.

These are, for example, the digitalisation of public administration that would be carried out together with Istrian cities, the construction of the Medical School in Pula, the reconstruction and extension of the E. Kumicic Vocational School in Rovinj and the extension and reconstruction of the Svetvincenat Elementary School. Also important is the project of the reconstruction of the building of the Infectious Disease Department of the Pula General Hospital and the preparation of space for the reception of COVID-19 positive patients, the renovation of radiological diagnostics with digitisation in Istrian health centres, the adaptation of the building of the Pula General Hospital to create accommodation for doctors, and the adaptation of the Special Hospital OiR “Martin Horvat” Rovinj with the aim of improving energy efficiency.

There is also a programme to encourage the development of entrepreneurship in the wider Istria County, as well as projects of the Port Authorities of Pula, Porec, Rovinj and Umag-Novigrad.

Along with the above, the City of Pula is asking for the most money for public projects listed in Istria – 213 million kuna.

”We can say that Istria is the locomotive of Croatia, and that the progress of Istria benefits the entire country. Istria is already at the forefront when it comes to digitalisation. We were among the first to introduce e-adminstration, enable the coverage of our area with an internet signal via Wi-Fi hot spots and through broadband infrastructure. We’re constantly encouraging the development of start-ups by providing them with space and financial conditions for work, introducing e-schools for teaching, and expanding the number of public services that can be paid for contactlessly, online, etc.

However, our goal is to carry out comprehensive digital transformation, and the aim of that is to make people’s lives better and simpler. The first step is to digitalise our administration to the end, to reduce bureaucracy and paperwork to a minimum, to make services fast and accessible, and to raise the transparency of work to an even higher level,” concluded Pula Mayor Boris Miletic when discussing Istria’s planned public projects.

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