You were elected FIC President after April this season. How can you perceive your role as leader from the Association?
For myself, it is a great responsibility to lead such an association. Equally, I am honoured to become alongside they of outstanding peers and professionals within the FIC Board of Directors and excited that we will be working together closely over the next 2 yrs on the common objective of contributing further to development of the Serbian economy.
This season, FIC celebrates 18 many years of operating in Serbia, which means the association includes a significant degree of maturity to carry on using the hard and challenging operate in the upcoming period. Using more than 120 members who invested over EUR35 billion and employ 100K people, there exists a good overview of all the industries operating in the united states and the progress made in improving the legislative framework. You want to continue the open and constructive dialog with the Government on further improvement areas, as we believe that it is the important thing to add mass to economy and attracting new foreign investors.
Temporary, people need to focus on minimizing negative effects from the crisis as well as on overall recovery from the economy, as COVID-19 epidemic has impacted every industry, company and person.
On a lasting, we will stay on the path of goals and principles which have shown results in the previous years, but we wish to further develop the organization, explore prospects for tackling a ‘new normal’ the crisis has taken about and lift the prominence of our community. We gather various industries, although not all industries are equally present. Therefore, you want to work on expanding our membership base by including industries that are not adequately represented in FIC (i.e. pharma sector, IT etc.) to build up a far more representative pool for achieving stronger advocacy results. In conclusion – to support the recovery from the Serbian economy, explore opportunities, continue growing and being a unified voice of investors to guarantee better conditions for business.
Your election took place throughout the very challenging times because of not just Serbia but the world, brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. How did your members cope with that situation and just what type of support did FIC provide to them throughout the crisis?
The reaction of companies was prompt and FIC was active in supporting them. Initially, the businesses focused on preserving employees’ health and safety, ensuring business continuity and adjusting to the new circumstances which, along with your emergency, exposed acute issues problems. FIC attempted to solve them urgently. We collected and submitted proposals of our members around the necessary economic measures and input on their implementation. We established the practise of continuously collecting reports every day issues that impede business operations and initiating their resolution regarding HR (working permits in particular), taxation, transportation issues yet others.
FIC recently held an online Conference on digitalization where members highlighted its importance and suggested that digitalization should be certainly one of this year’s White Book focuses. Tell us much more about the Conference, who participated on the FIC and Government’s side, that which was the aim of the conference and which subtopics FIC highlighted as priorities?
I would express it would be a very successful conference. It gathered around 100 FIC members, and 15 Government representatives from seven relevant institutions. We aimed to open a dialogue on digitalization in Serbian legislation, therefore we can function on its further improvement with the joint Working Group with the Government. The idea to organize the Conference came from FIC members as the need for digitalization has risen using the coronavirus pandemic. FIC presented areas of key importance that need to be discussed, to mention just a few: the need to let the widest possible utilization of electronic signatures in everyday communication and paperless business, to carry on the accelerated work on digital transformation of both Customs and Tax Administration, to carry on with digitalization and simplification from the strictly formal mode of communication between employer and employee in labour field, etc.
We believe that digitalization will be one of the key areas for joint work with the federal government in the upcoming months.
We are entering a more stable period when it comes to COVID-19 pandemic. What will be key FIC priorities within the upcoming months?
Our priorities defined inside the joint Task Force using the Government are focused on improving implementation of FIC White Book recommendations and have not changed significantly over the time. We structured our efforts around nine fields that people see as priorities: taxes, labour, inspections, food safety, real-estate, digitalization & e-commerce, pharmaceuticals, bankruptcy and Forex. We believe that progress in these areas might have very positive multiple effects around the Serbian economy and increase attractiveness of the nation for foreign investors.
The Government elections should be held in June as announced. Exactly what do you anticipate in the new Government?
Our expectation would be to continue with the practice of excellent cooperation through open and constructive dialogue. Our ambition in a long time in the future is to improve degree of implemented FIC White Book recommendations to achieve 50% progress every year, instead of the previous 35-45% average.
