Shkodra, Podgorica promote tourism through handicraft

TIRANA, April 5 – A project building pathways for tourism cooperation through developing handicraft products between Albania’s northern region of Shkdra and the neighboring Montenegrin capital, Podgorica, has started being implemented.
The one-year European Union funded project under the IPA CBC Albania-Montenegro will mainly focus on handicraft cooperation.
“The goal of this project is to promote handicraft values in both inter-border regions, which is considered a good test on cross-border cooperation as an important step toward European integration for the western balkans,” said Gjovalin Kolombi, the head of Shkodra’s regional council as quoted by local media.
Officials say the project also foresees the shooting of a documentary to promote ethnographic values of the Shkodra and Podgorica regions.
The project started up implementation on 1st of February 2011 under the main implementers of Guri i Zi Commune in Shkodra and Montenegrin capital, Podgorica. The project partners, the Regional Council of Shkodra, the Albanian Artisans Association NGO, and Montenegro Chamber of Skilled Crafts and Entrepreneurship constitute the team for project implementation.
The Decentralisation and Local Development Programme (dldp) provided technical support for the EU/IPA CBC project implementation for Commune of Guri i Zi and the Regional Council of Shkodra.