"Painful reforms will steer Serbia toward future"

"Painful reforms will steer Serbia toward future"

Speaking for the daily Večernje Novosti, she added time is running out for "painful, but fundamental reforms that will steer Serbia towards the future and modern countries."

"If we do not conduct real reforms this time, we face not only the 'Greek scenario,' bankruptcy and agony, but also the country's descent to a lower level of civilization," Udovički said.

The minister said she was not surprised that she was also made a deputy prime minister, explaining that the office granted her with extra authority to do her job, which was to coordinate all government bodies.

According to Udovički, the Secretariat for Public Policies, which she will manage, will harmonize the activities of all the levels of government.

"We are going to create institutional mechanisms for a unified and coordinated operation of all the parts of the government apparatus. The goal is to work in a long-term and strategic fashion to establish a professional system of administration that will not depend on political change," she stressed.

Explaining the benefits of the changes to the people, she stated that the public administration would be a lot smaller and more accessible to the people and businesses.

"It will assist investments and stimulate entrepreneurship instead of obstructing it. The people will benefit the most from it. The economic measures cannot yield their maximum result if we do not modernize the administration," she noted.

When asked if there would be layoffs in the government apparatus, Udovički responded that the public administration would have to be downsized, and that her task was to define the principles and framework for the restructuring of the administration, while each minister would propose steps related to their own field.