“Our goal is the Action Plan to be focused on innovative measures, not to be bulky with a number of different measures and goals, so that the implementation can be concrete, measurable and comprehensive,” said Damjan Mancevski, Minister of Information Society and Administration (MISA), at the opening of the two-day conference “Open Government Partnership – Dialogue with CSOs on the National Action Plan 2018-2020”. He announced that MISA is working on opening up the data from the work of the state institutions, making them easily accessible to the interested parties, and in August this year a new open data portal will be put into use.
N.E. Micaela Schweitzer-Bluhm, Deputy US Ambassador to Macedonia, spoke about the positive examples of open government partnership in the United States and increased expectations from citizens on the issue of involvement in the decision-making process. “An open government is good for the state budget because increased transparency reduces corruption. It is also good for the business, since the publication of more current data by the Government may reveal new opportunities for businesses. But it is above all good for the citizens. When young people see a transparent government, they see opportunities; and when they see a government ready for cooperation, they see its commitment to partnership with citizens, “she said.
Nicola Bertolini, Head of Cooperation in the EU Delegation in Skopje, spoke about the demonstrated openness of the Government which is part of the road to EU integration. “What this country has accomplished over the past months is unbelievable. Finally, we have a Council for Cooperation with CSOs, finally civil society participates in workshops that address sectoral policies, thus, now, open government partnership has its best days. Therefore, I warmly welcome the attendees to the discussion” he said.
The first day, it will be discussed about the open government partnership and the progress and the results from the implementation of the National Action Plan (NAP) 2014-2016.
The second day the presentations will focus on the Independent Progress Report 2016-2017 prepared by the Independent Reporting Mechanism, and the experience and recommendations for prioritizing and selecting the proposed commitments. During the day, group work is also planned which will enable CSOs to give directions and recommendations for the next Action Plan for 2018-2020.
The Ministry of Information Society and Administration is organising the conference “Open Government Partnership – Dialogue with CSOs on the National Action Plan 2018-2020” with the support of the Macedonian Center for International Cooperation within the project “National Resource Center for Civil Society Organisations “.
The National Resource Centre for Civil Society Organisations is an EU-funded project.
