• 2014-11-19
• |  Belgrade

Democratic Political Forum Debate: How to Recover the Economy of Serbia?

Democratic Political Forum Debate: “Big Investments – Illusions or Reality?”

The future recovery of Serbia is depending on investments, but there is a question if the level we will manage to acquire will be sufficient to solve problem of unemployment – this is the joint remark coming from participants of the debate “Big Investments – Illusions or Reality?” held within the project Democratic Political Forum in Belgrade. 

According to the Center for Democracy Foundation’s President Dragoljub Mićunović, investments are vital for our further economic development, but the question is what we can offer to investors, in which operations should be invested and why investors come. 

Additionally, in his words, the question is if the educated and inexpensive labor force our comparative advantage and how educated it actually this force, considering that in the 90s Serbia was isolated for a long period, which resulted not only in technical but also in degradation of the labor force. 

Ha also stated that politicians should talk about investments more responsibly, because they can be discussed seriously only when they are actually realized, and that every unrealistic raising of citizens’ expectations may provoke disappointment. 

In professor from the Faculty of Economics Ivan Vujačić’s opinion, foreign investments should create new employment and alleviate the transitional shock, introduce new technologies in the production process, bring new export markets, recruit and educate younger people. 

“I think that the foreign investments will create great employment is an illusion. They will create certain level of employment, but not as high as we expect”, as he said. 

Vujačić reminded that Serbian economy is actually ruined in the 1990s and that by year 2000 there were no foreign investments in our country. He highlighted that over 50% of foreign investments in the region are aimed at the areas of services, trade and finances. 

Former minister and member of Democratic Party Slobodan Milosavljević stated that foreign investors are participating with around 20% in Serbian GDP and that all critics and suggestions about enterprising in Serbia that are annually published in the “White Book” by Council of Foreign Investors should be carefully analyzed. 

Milosavljević said that he participated today’s promotion of the “White Book for Year 2014” and that it was disappointing to him that none of the foreign investors were allowed to comment or make questions. 

According to his opinion, it is wrong to separate foreign and domestic investors, since they both can significantly contribute to our economic development. 

Round Table “Big Investments – Illusion or Reality?” was organized by Center for Democracy Foundation in cooperation with Friedrich Ebert Foundation.

Source: Tanjug 

Participants of the Debate were: Ivan Vujačić (Economic Faculty), Slobodan Milosavljević (Democratic Party), Dragoljub Mićunović (Center for Democracy Foundation), Ljubodrag Savić (Economic Faculty), Mahmud Bušatlija (consultant for foreign investments), Miladin Kovačević (Macroeconomic Analysis and Trends), Željko Rakić (Ministry of Trade, Tourism and Telecommunications), Jelena Vasić (Serbian Chamber of Commerce), Ljubica Slavković (Civic Action “We Don’t Give nor Strangle Belgrade – Građanska akcija "Ne da(vi)mo Beograd"), Ksenija Radovanović (Civic Action "We Don’t Give nor Strangle Belgrade – Ne da(vi)mo Beograd"), Ile Kovačević (Danube Initiative), Milan R. Kovačević (consultant for foreign investments), Nataša Vučković (Center for Democracy Foundation) and others. 

Center for Democracy Foundation​