Students help villages in Serbia - French-Serbian Chamber of Commerce announces open competition for students to develop vision of Serbia for next 20 years

Although representing a big development potential of Serbia, every fourth village is in the process of disappearance, and if the state does nothing to save them, they will all disappear in one decade, it is shown by the data provided by the Institute for the Study of Villages. On that occasion, the French-Serbian Chamber of Commerce invites all students to develop their vision of Serbia for the next 20 years. The prize fund offered by this open competition is EUR 3,000, and all students can submit their work and find more information on the website ccfs.rs.

The French-Serbian Chamber of Commerce in Belgrade will present its second Student Award to the student whose work includes the most original preliminary design and best addresses the topic "Village-City, Does Economic Development inevitably Lead to the Depopulation of Villages".

- It is important to contemplate about this topic because over 200 rural settlements in Serbia have no inhabitants under the age of 20, whereas their remaining inhabitants are sinking into deepening poverty. On the other hand, what can be noticed in France over the last few years is a tendency of people living in cities to move to villages - said Sanja Ivanic, director of the French-Serbian Chamber of Commerce, adding that that institution wanted to raise the awareness of that problem among young people and public in Serbia, thus attracting suggestions for a system solution to the problem.