"Economy to be backbone of new cabinet program"

"Economy to be backbone of new cabinet program"

According to the report, the economic part of the program will form the backbone of his premiership expose, and provides three basic points - major structural reforms, financial consolidation of the state budget, and incentives.

In the framework of structural reforms the next Serbian government will propose the adoption of laws on labor, bankruptcy, privatization, and civil servants.

It envisages strengthening of the role of the Office for the Quick Answers, thorough restructuring of companies and completion of privatizations of public enterprises.

Within the financial consolidation, "drastic savings" on the expenditure side of the budget are planned through elimination of official cars and daily allowances in the public administration.

In order to maximize the revenue side, the government will step up the fight against the gray economy, and will take measures to strengthen the private sector, according to the newspaper, which quoted parts of Vučić's program.

The government will actively work to attract foreign and domestic investors, while these measures are aimed at reducing unemployment through incentives to private owners for hiring new workers.

According to the newspaper, while drafting the program Vučić was under constant pressure from the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, "who are demanding that pensions be cut by 25 percent and public sector wages by 20 percent, and also that 15 percent of employees in the public sector be laid off. "

As reported by the daily, Vučić told the international financial institutions that he "understood their requirements," but would not agree "to bring life in Serbia to a standstill."

According to the article, Vučić should announce his cabinet by Easter, after the new parliament has been constituted on April 17, and after he officially receives a mandate to form the government from President Tomislav Nikolić.

WB, IMF deny recommending specific measures

Reacting to what she said were inaccuracies in the article the daily Večernje Novosti published on Friday, Vesna Kostić, an official of the World Bank's Serbia office, said in a statement that the financial institution "has been discussing with the authorities in recent months the need to establish a sustainable medium-term macroeconomic and fiscal framework that stimulates growth and jobs and protects society's most vulnerable groups."

"Contrary to statements in the article, the World Bank has not recommended specific targets related to public salaries, employment or pensions. Specific measures and targets to achieve macro-fiscal goals are defined by the Serbian authorities taking into account the socio-economic circumstances of the country," Kostić wrote, and added:

"We look forward to pursuing the dialogue on fiscal sustainability, public sector and state-owned enterprise reform once a new government is in place."

IMF's Resident Representative in Belgrade Daehaeng Kim also reacted with a statement, saying that an IMF mission had constructive conversations with representatives of the Ministry of Finance as they were meeting in February and March.

These talks concerned mid-term debt projections and possible measures of fiscal adjustment needed to stabilize rapid public debt growth, he said.

The statement added that the IMF mission did not recommend concrete measures needed to achieve fiscal savings, and that Serbian authorities said they would consider the policy measures in the coming weeks.

The IMF representative also said that the financial institution holds the position that all measures that will be adopted must be broadly socially acceptable, in order to secure their sustainability, and in that sense recommended a package to protect the endangered part of the population.