Presenting the activity information, Dragan Grgurevic, State Secretary at the Ministry of Economy, said that in the reporting period the Ministry worked on four systemic laws which should be forwarded into Assembly procedure by mid-November. Grgurevic stressed that the Ministry had conducted active investigations and supervision of public enterprises which had, he underlined, in the reporting period realized 25% more profit than planned, reviewed project-related activities, given stimulation packages and financed numerous infrastructural projects in support of the development of networks between business zones, development of small and medium-sized enterprises etc.

The State Secretary stressed that the World Bank had declared Serbia the best country in South-Eastern Europe as regards reforms implemented, which made it more attractive for foreign investors. In the past seven months Serbia has received 1.2 billion worth of direct investments, and foreign investors have, in addition to the contractually planned about 13,000 jobs, created 20,000 new ones, and the unemployment rate has gone down from 26 to 11.8%.

Assistant Minister Katarina Obradovic Jovanovic added that in the reporting period, three programmes were realized under the auspices of the Decade of Entrepreneurship in cooperation with the Development Fund and Business Banks, which among other things concern support for micro, small and medium-sized enterprises, while Dragan Urgcic, speaking of the Ministry’s reports on the privatisation process for July, August and September 2017, highlighted Galenika’s privatization process and announced that the contract of sale would soon be signed. Urgcic also said that this model of privatization could also be employed in the cases of RTB Bor, PKB and others and that the privatization of these enterprises could be finalized in the coming year.

The Committee members adopted the Ministry of Economy activity information for the period April-June 2017 and July-September 2017, and the Ministry of Economy reports on the privatisation process for July, August and September 2017 by majority vote.

The sitting was chaired by Committee Chairperson Snezana B. Petrovic and attended by the following Committee members and deputy members: Dr Aleksandra Tomic, Stanislava Janosevic, Studenka Kovacevic, Aleksandar Stevanovic, Zoran Bojanic, Gorica Gajic, Ivan Manojlovic, Snezana R. Petrovic and Snezana Paunovic.