The Facility for Infrastructure Development ORIO is funded by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs to encourage public infrastructure development in developing countries. ORIO contributes to the realization of good functioning, development relevant, public infrastructure in developing countries in order to contribute to human development and private sector development. ORIO funds are available for financing projects in the units of local – self government, but only in cooperation with the relevant ministry. The application for a project in unit of local – self government must be submitted by the relevant ministry.

The total annual budget for ORIO program is around 180 million EUR earmarked for funding projects in 50 developing countries, including the Republic of Macedonia. The program provides support to all phases of project cycle, which provides funding of around 50% of the budget necessary for the development phase of the project and about 35% of the budget necessary in the operational phase, implementation phase and costs for operation and maintenance of systems within 10 years. According to established rules and principles for the use of ORIO, the total budget frame by project should be more than 2 million EUR and less than 60 million EUR.

The ORIO call for proposals 2012 is now open. Applicants may apply for a grant until 31 August 2012 or until the budget for 2012 has been exhausted.

Starting with this call for proposals the new ORIO rules will be applied. A major change is that projects will be taken into consideration on a “first come, first served” basis. Also, there are no longer any priority sectors for ORIO projects. From now on, projects from all infrastructure sectors (water, environment, energy, transport, ICT, social services and civil works) in each country on the ORIO country list may be eligible for an ORIO grant.

Projects will be assessed on formal administrative requirements first. In case a project does not meet the formal administrative requirements, the applicant can restore or complement the proposal. However, it will not hold its ranking position regarding “first come, first served”. Projects that meet these requirements are then assessed on formal substantive requirements.

Applications that fulfill all formal requirements are subsequently assessed on the basis of 5 criteria: relevance, effectiveness, impact, efficiency and sustainability. A project can score either "sufficient" or "insufficient" on each criterion. In order to be eligible for an ORIO grant, a project should score "sufficient" on each individual criterion. The assessment procedure will not differ very much: ORIO will still invite the applicant for a meeting to discuss the project, either in The Hague or via teleconference.

All application related documents can be found on the following link: http://www.agentschapnl.nl/en/node/50436

For any additional information we advise you to visit the official ORIO page: http://www.orio.nl

Dutch Agency for international cooperation (NL EVD International) is in charge for implementation of ORIO programme: http://www.agentschapnl.nl/en

Contact from the Secretariat for European Affairs:

Orhideja Kaljosevska
State Counsellor for coordination of EU funds and other foreign assistance
Orhideja.kaljosevska@sep.gov.mk
Tel: +389 23 200 139

Sofce Krstic
Head of Unit for bilateral and multilateral assistance Sofce.zafirovska@sep.gov.mk
Tel: +389 23 200 219