Serbian Prime Minister Mirko Cvetkovic met with representatives of the American business world in Washington yesterday and stressed that during the continuation of EU integration, there will be plenty favourable conditions for investing in Serbia.
Responding to a question on the benefits for potential US investors, as a result of Serbia’s accession process, Cvetkovic explained that they will primarily reflect on the legislative sphere and improvement of the business climate.
The largest economic issues Serbia is faced with are unemployment and inflation, which is to a great degree caused by the hike in food prices, the Prime Minister said.
However, I hope that in the future, food will become our oil, because we already produce more food than we consume, therefore our capacity in this field is not exploited to the full, he observed.
It is unjust to keep Serbia hostage to the negative reputation it acquired in the 1990s because a former producer of regional instability has become a key stability factor in the Western Balkans, the Prime Minister declared.
He presented the participants in the meeting with results of his several-day visit to Washington, part of the World Bank and the IMF’s spring session, adding that these financial institutions will keep endorsing Serbia in the future.
The Prime Minister invited the representatives of US companies to invest in Serbia.
At the meeting, organised by Microsoft and U.S. Steel, he stressed that political stability in Serbia has not been compromised with the recent reconstruction of the government and demands from the opposition to call early parliamentary elections because there is a strong parliamentary majority that supports the government.
December, on which the opposition insisted as a deadline for holding the parliamentary elections, is reserved for something else, he said noting that Serbia will make an essential step in its EU integration process in December, when we expect to be granted candidate status for EU membership and the date for starting the negotiations.
Deputy Prime Minister Bozidar Djelic informed the participants in the meeting about the measures aimed at improving the education system and the level of technological development and also measures to prevent brain drain.
In addition to the representatives of Microsoft and the U.S. Steel, the meeting was also attended by representatives of PWC, NCR, Motorola, LATA, Medtronic and other companies in the field of high technologies, as well as by representatives of several business associations.
Cvetkovic also met yesterday with officials of the USAID, thus completing his several-day visit to Washington.
Source balkans.com
