President of European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) Suma Chakrabarti and Prime Minister of Serbia Aleksandar Vucic signed Memorandum of Understanding launching a joint initiative for the development of investment environment, support to development of private sector and promotion of good governance in Serbia.
President of EBRD Suma Chakrabarti said that Serbia was one of 35 EBRD’s partners and its importance as a partner was increasing. He announced that the Bank would support reforms and bring more investors from Western Europe to Serbia. He reminded that EBRD last year upheld investments in Serbia through loans worth some EUR450 million and said he was confident that the money would increase in 2015, Belgrade media report.
Reminding that this was his third official visit to Belgrade since he had taken post of EBRD President, Chakrabarti said that Memorandum of Understanding would strengthen investment environment in Serbia, assist both domestic and foreign investors, enforce private sector, improve governing management and lead to sustainable growth.
One of Memorandum’s goals is to strengthen Justice capacity and efficiency in settling economic disputes, President of EBRD said. Final goal of the joint initiative envisaged by Memorandum of Understanding is to strengthen overall Serbian economy, Chakrabarti said.
Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic said that he expected Memorandum to “assist and support Serbia in managing private and state-owned enterprises, increase transparency and efficiency in the process of privatisation and implement it fully.“
Discussion with EBRD representatives included ways in which to stimulate development of small and medium businesses, Prime Minister said, confident that the deal would shortly be reached and that it would be “a real boom for our people“ reiterating that signature of Memorandum with EBRD was the biggest news for Serbia.
EBRD also supports resolving major issues such as RTB Bor and Galenika and process of privatisation within banking sector and improvement public procurement procedures, Prime Minister Vucic said and added that EBRD was happy with the process of restructuring of EPS and that in late October the company would have an opportunity to take a EUR200 million loan out.
Signature ceremony was attended by Minister of Economy Zeljko Sertic, Minister of Finance Dusan Vujovic, Minister of Energy and Mining Aleksandar Antic, Minister of Transport, Construction and Infrastructure Zorana Mihajlovic, Governor Of National Bank of Serbia Jorgovanka Tabakovic, Minister of Justice Nikola Selakovic. At the ceremony, EBRD was represented by EBRD Director for Western Balkans Holger Muent, Director of EBRD Serbia Daniel Berg as well as EBRD Senior Political Counsellor Oleg Levitin.
During his two-day visit to Serbia, President of EBRD will meet with Serbian President Tomislav Nikolic, Minister of Finance/Serbian Governor at EBRD Dusan Vujovic and members of international and business community.
Since it began its operation in Serbia, EBRD has invested over EUR3.9 billion through more than 188 projects in the area of finance, industry, trade, agriculture, energy and infrastructure.
