Press conference - official launching of the Project "Traditional olive industry like a part of cross border tourism offer" was held on January 31, 2011 in Bar. This project is funded by the European Union as a part of Cross-border program Croatia - Montenegro under the Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance (IPA). The project aims at improving the quality of the tourist destination by creating cross border olive tourism offer based on authentic olive oil production, tradition and culture in Boka kotorska region and Bar Municipality in Montenegro and Dubrovnik-Neretva County in Croatia. The project aims at strengthening cooperation between tourism and agriculture in both countries as well.
Representatives of the following media were present: Radio Bar, TV Montenegro, NTV "Montena", RTV "Atlas", Daily Newspaper "Dan", Daily Newspaper "Pobjeda". The participants were greeted by:
Dragan Simović, Deputy Mayor of Bar Municipality
Ratka Sekulović, Representative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and European Integration of Montenegro
Nicola Bertolini, Head of Operations Section in the Delegation of the European Union to Montenegro
dr sci Mario Bjeliš, Deputy Director in Croatian Centre for Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, and
Predrag Janković, Country representative, SNV Montenegro
Total project value is 479,270.09 euro, for Montenegro 249,270 euro, for Croatia 230,107 euro. EU is funding project with 386,325 euro, while Montenegrin partners contribute 37,664 euro and Croatian 55,386 euro. The project duration is 24 months. Lead partners are SNV- Netherlands Development Organization in Montenegro and Croatian Centre for Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs in Croatia. The partners from Montenegro are Municipality of Bar, Association of olive producers Bar and Association of olive producers Boka, while partners from Croatia are Dubrovnik Neretva County's association of olive oil producers and Dubrovnik Neretva County's Regional Development Agency.