On the 22 February 2008 Ms. Ginka Kapitanova, Executive Director of FLGR, presented the Mayor of the Tundzha Municipality Mr. Georgi Georgiev with the Innovative Municipality '2007 National Award. The ceremony took place in the town of Yambol and was attended by the Chairman of he Municipal Council Mr. Kircho Kaaragyozov, municipal councilors, vice mayors, mayors of villages, citizens, media representatives.
FLGR awards for the sixth consecutive year the Award to the municipality that has submitted the highest number of innovative practices to the online data base at www.flgr.bg
During the year 2007 the FLGR Innovative Practices data base was enriched with 97 practices, submitted by 27 municipalities and their civic and business partners, by 5 regional and 1 professional association of municipalities in Bulgaria.
The third place winner with input of 10 practices is the Municipality of Straldzha.
Second place goes to the Municipality of Svishtov with 14 innovative practices shared in 2007.
Municipality of Tundzha is the winner of the FLGR 2007 Innovative Municipality Contest with the input of 22 innovative practices.
These practices show the wide variety of the life of the municipality and the intense work of the municipal experts that are the engines of these initiatives.
As an incentive for the future active work of the municipality FLGR awards a free subscription for the FLGR's economic Bi-weekly and a training for the members of the Municipal Council.
The Mayor of Tundzha pointed out how important the Innovative Municipality Award '2007 is concerning the 20th Anniversary of the proclaiming the Tundzha as a municipality. The very fact of receiving the Award demonstrates the vitality and the potential of the Tundzha citizen, the Tundzha administration and Municipal Council, noted Mr. Georgiev.
Since 1998 FLGR encourages, collects, publishes and disseminates Innovative Practices. The Innovative Practices Project started with the financial support of the Open Society Institute - Budapest and the United State Agency for International Development. This unique project provides a forum for the exchange of experience and has proved to be a sustainable model for collecting and disseminating innovative practices within Bulgarian local government system. From 2002 FLGR conducts Innovative Practices competitions on different topics and awards its Annual Innovative Municipality Award to municipalities that shared the most innovative practices within the current year.
The winners of the previous contests are:
Municipality of Straldzha - 2006
Municipality of Svishtov - 2005
Municipality of City of Dobrich - 2004
Municipality of Sliven - 2003
Municipality of Silistra - 2002