Opening the public hearing, the Chairperson of the Committee on the Economy, Regional Development, Trade, Tourism and Energy, Dr Aleksandra Tomic expressed her belief that the conclusions of this public hearing, gathering all the relevant factors in the field of metal industry, would contribute to a speedier resolution of the problems in the area.

In the introductory part the participants were first addressed by the representative of the Association of Independent Trade Unions of Serbia, Zoran Mihajlovic, who spoke of the situation in the Serbian metal industry and reminded the participants that the metal industry has suffered a significant drop in employees in the last 20 years. He appealed to the policy creators to offer solutions for all the enterprises and employees in the field and forestall the consequences of the restructuring process which should be completed in 2013.

The representatives of the Independent Metal Union of Serbia Zoran Vujovic and Bozidar Todorovic stressed that need to secure business for the metal industry on the domestic market and pointed out the need to engage all state policy actors on finding the best solutions for the recovery of the metal industry. The businessmen and unions agree that the recovery of the metal industry calls for capital increase, change in tax policy, labour market reform, amendment of the Public Procurement Law, education reform and establishment of a partnership between state, employers and trade unions, it was said in the introductory part of the public hearing.

Dragan Z. Milovanovic, Vice-President of the ASNS Industrial Branch Union and chief trustee of ASNS Zelezara Smederevo spoke of the process of closing of Zelezara Smederevo and pointed out the need to resolve all the problems in the area through socio-economic dialogue.

Dragan Matic, President of the Industrial Trade Union of Serbia said that coming up with potential solutions in the metal industry sector calls for an individual approach to each company, adding that the expertise of the governing structures of each of these enterprises needs to be re-examined.

The ensuing discussion between the representatives of the business sector, union representatives, ministry representatives and the MPs listed the burning issues in the metal industry sector such as unsuccessful privatisations, surplus workforce, need for revitalisation, protection of the domestic market and offered possible solutions to overcome them. They also pointed out the need for further analysis of the state of the economy, need to fund the economy and reform of the tax system.

The participants were also addressed by MPs Dragomir Karic, Vladimir Marinkovic, Slavica Savic and Ranka Savic who also spoke of the problems in the metal industry and possible ways to overcome them from the aspect of legislative power representatives.

Ljubisa Obradovic, representative of the Serbian Chamber of Commerce, Svetozar Krstic, representative of the Belgrade Chamber of Commerce and Dusan Korunoski of the Serbian Association of Employers introduced the second part of the public hearing. They said, considering the negative trends exhibited by the metal industry for a number of years now, we need to define the real potentials and perspectives for the metal industry for the upcoming period. They also stressed the need to adopt a development strategy and plan, formulate a new economic and industrial policy and regional industrial development plans in the upcoming period. They also highlighted the high public expenditure and corruption, as well as the flaws in the labour legislation, and with it in mind appealed to the state institutions to undertake appropriate measures to resolve these problems.

Closing the public hearing, the Chairperson of the Committee on the Economy, Regional Development, Trade, Tourism and Energy, Dr Aleksandra Tomic, stressed that the Committee, acting within its scope, would forward the complete information on the public hearing to the competent ministries, as well as the conclusions and recommendations jointly formulated in the course of the debate. The Committee Chairperson also stressed that, in the process of finding solutions for the recovery of the metal industry, it is necessary to establish dialogue between the representatives of the state, trade unions and employers, so as to analyse all the possible solutions for the restructuring of the economy.

MPs Petar Skundric, Zoran Pralica and Ljubisa Stojmirovic also took part in the public hearing.