Marija Karaeva, Lawyer, PhD in economics, is an experienced and motivated professional specialized in the field Regional Economic Development with more than 15 years of experiences in area of:
- Assessing regional development initiatives in the process of policy creation;
- Facilitation of strategy-building processes in local and regional development, programming and identification of development goals, development and implementation of projects for economic development;
- Drafting proposals for amendment of Law and by-laws for regional development;
- Managing activities and priorities of Governments and International Donors related to local and regional development;
- Preparation of operational planning documents for regional development;
- Managing activities related to EU Accession and IPA funds for municipalities and CSO’s;
- Enabling and reinforcing inter municipal cooperation for development;
- Monitoring and evaluation of more than 200 projects.

Currently she works as a Programme Coordinator of the project “Sustainable and Inclusive Balanced Regional Development” co-financed by Swiss Embassy/SDC and implemented by Ministry of Local Self-Government and Cabinet of Deputy Prime minister in charge for economic affairs.

She is responsible for supporting Regional Planning at both, national and regional level and coordination with key institutions responsible for designing and implementing regional development policy.

Besides being experienced in promoting transparency, participation and social inclusion at both, national and regional levels, during planning and implementation of the regional policy, she also possess profound knowledge in promoting regional forums as a consultative mechanism in the process of defining the project proposal.