Controversial campaign "pitches Serbia as 3rd world country"

Controversial campaign "pitches Serbia as 3rd world country"

The newspaper says that a week after they requested more information about the ad - "who created it, how much it cost, for how long it will run, and whether investors could be attracted in any other way except by promoting Serbia as a Third World country " - the PKS has not provided a response.

Economist Miodrag Zec, however, commented for the daily to say the campaign "damages national dignity" but also sends out the wrong signal:

"Cheap labor cannot be our main advantage, first of all because we don't have enough of it. A small country like ours cannot use cheap labor as its trump card, because the age structure has been disturbed, that is, the population is getting older. We don't have the volume and influx of young people like, for instance, Turkey and China, based on which it's possible to have cheap labor in the first place," elaborated Zec.

He went on to explain "how social and economic problems came full circle":

"If there are more older than younger people and salaries are low, that means taxes are low, therefore pensions as well, and of course the state sets aside little money for health care and education. There's no state there."

This economist also questioned the ad's mention of "highly qualified work force," noting this was "not entirely true":

"What was worth training, what dealt with production such as electrical engineers, is going abroad. Meanwhile we are training staff for foreign stores, we are training support workforce for foreign retail chains that deliver, repack, and sell goods imported from abroad."

Earlier this month, the Confederation of Autonomous Trade Unions of Serbia described the government's campaign aimed at attracting capital as "disgraceful."

PKS Acting Director Milivoje Miletic said at the time that Serbia's goal was "not to be a country with highly qualified and low paid workforce."

Sociologist Sobodan Vukovic also weighed in and told the newspaper that he was against this manner of promotion, but added:

"Realistically, we are a part of the Third World, and have nothing else to offer."

"Our industrial production is lower than it was after the (NATO) bombing. Foreign investors are above all interested in infrastructure, cheap labor, fair and efficient judiciary, obtaining permits quickly, low levels of corruption and good geographical location, that is, the proximity of markets. Of all these things we only have cheap labor and a good geographical location," this sociologist concluded.