"Management of economy needs fundamental change"

"Management of economy needs fundamental change"

Serbia needs to change fundamentally how it manages its economy. It is key to base the reforms on the rule of law, Davenport said the 8th National Alliance for Local Economic Development (NALED) annual conference.

The next government should use the services of NALED, which will be involved in the talks with the EU.

Swiss Ambassador to Serbia Jean Daniel Ruch stressed that it was sad to see young people wishing to leave the country, and that their departure should be stopped.

He commended NALED on creating better economic conditions for investment and improving the efficiency of the local administration.

Deputy U.S. Ambassador Gordon Duguid said NALED was the champion of economic development and an organization that brought together a great number of businesses and organizations in helping to develop the Serbian economy.

NALED joins talks

The National Alliance for Local Economic Development (NALED) will get actively engaged in Serbia's EU membership talks by supervising the adjustments in the Serbian laws to the European legislature and will regularly prepare the information for the European Commission report.

At the 8th annual NALED session in Belgrade on Friday, the organisation stated that the Alliance will file reports directly to Brussels, the EU Delegation and the Serbian government European Integration Office on a quarterly basis concerning Serbia's progress in creating a favourable business environment in keeping with European directives.

NALED will also offer support to government institutions and provide tangible solutions so that the numerous regulatory requests set for Serbia could be met as soon as possible and with the best possible quality.

In order to implement the conclusions, NALED will send a recommendation to the future Serbian government on key reforms necessary for the construction of a positive business environment and encouragement of economic growth, NALED Managing Board President Vladan Atanasijević stated.

Improvement of regulations, primarily through amendments to labour laws and laws on income taxes, enhancement of construction permit procedures, countering grey economy and simplification of tax administration are covered in the first group of reforms.

The next steps in the reform process comprise the need for adoption of high-quality laws and bylaws and their implementation.

Atanasijević also noted that the future government is expected to make room for the economy's participation in all stages of the preparation of regulations and bodies of the executive government so that it could get a chance to propose new laws or amendments to the existing regulations.

By the publication of the annual plan for adoption of laws and several regulations that need to be adopted on urgent procedure, the predictability in the adoption of regulations should go hand in hand with a simplification of bureaucratic procedures and a more prominent implementation of electronic administration.