Privatization to be completed in this Government's mandate – Over 20,000 new jobs by late 2016

The privatization will be completed during this Government's mandate and public enterprises will be healthy and stable in two to three years, stated Minister of Economy Goran Knezevic. He said that public enterprises like Resavica and Srbijagas would be profitable and that there had already been an improvement in 2015, compared to 2014.

– The ministries' goals are to improve the business environment, complete the privatization, restructure public enterprises, increase the scope and size of investments in Serbia and develop small and medium enterprises – the minister says and claims that there are concrete plans for achieving these goals.

Talking about small and medium enterprises, he said that they were aware that there were several problems regarding those. The first task is to standardize the quality of their products.

– We will teach them how, provide them with tools, educate them and provide them with means of educating themselves and preparing marketing actions. The market is another problem. We need to find a market for them – Knezevic says.

– We are here to act as a good mediator, to give it a try with a guarantee fund, to try with less rigid procedures for small and medium enterprises to get to financial means – he adds.

The minister says that it is expected than 20,000 new jobs will be created by the end of the year.

– We have already signed agreements on EUR 133 million worth of investments this year, which is around 8,500 jobs, and we expect an additional 20,987 jobs by the end of the year, based on agreements and inquiries by foreign investors which have asked to come to Serbia – Knezevic said.

Talking about how much the state set aside for subsidized job positions in 2015, he says that he hasn't received precise data yet, but that it amounted to around EUR 60 million.

Knezevic emphasizes that the Law on Investment, which has made local and foreign investors equal, prescribes that all the subsidies given to investors can also be given to local entrepreneurs and investors. He says that there are limits now and, he emphasizes, clear employment criteria, and that municipalities have been divided into five zones, with a separate formula for each.

– There's a limit now of EUR 3,000 per job in the most developed local self-governments to EUR 7,000 in undeveloped and devastated areas – the minister says.

Knezevic adds that the legal system will be amended and that the problem of corporate parafiscal charges will be solved.

– There are local self-governments where there are more than 70 to 80 parafiscal charges on a single business entity – he says and adds that a law reducing parafiscal charges to a reasonable amount would probably be passed, in cooperation with the Ministry of Local Self-Government, by the end of 2016.

Ministarstvo privrede Republike Srbije

JP Srbijagas Novi Sad

Ministarstvo državne uprave i lokalne samouprave Republike Srbije

Goran Knezevic

privatization in Serbia

public enterprises

Resavica

restructuring public enterprises

small and medium enterprises

subsidies for job positions

Law on Investment

subsidies for investors

parafiscal charges