Serbia Gets Five More Business Friendly Municipalities
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| The Speakers at the Business Friendly Certification Event (U.S. Ambassador Mary Warlick in the Center). |
The National Alliance for Local Economic Development (NALED), with USAID support, designated five additional Serbian municipalities/cities as business friendly. Bujanovac, Leskovac, Pirot, Subotica and Vranje all met the nearly 100 different criteria necessary for the creation of a business friendly environment and were bestowed with the prestigious designation of being a “Business Friendly Municipality” at a ceremony held in the National Assembly Hall in Belgrade. This designation will help these municipalities to attract new investors, as potential investors use this designation as a barometer to determine where to invest. Loznica, Kragujevac and Indjija were the first municipalities to receive this designation back in September 2008 and have all seen significant investments since.
The certificates are a guarantee that businesses can count on a sound quality of services, accurate information and predictable start up costs in these municipalities. More importantly, the certificate promotes a sense of partnership and accountability of the municipal administration towards businesses.
The ceremony was attended by Deputy Prime Minister Mladjan Dinkic, Minister Milan Markovic, U.S. Ambassador Mary Warlick, as well as the Ambassadors of Israel, Canada and Austria.
“Today when development and the creation of better conditions for stability and economic development prevail as a theme on almost all word forums, we are proud to say that we in Serbia, with joint forces, are also taking decisive steps towards the desired goal that all of the developed world is aiming for,” said Vladimir Cupic, president of the NALED Management Board.
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| The Mayors of Certified Municipalities Proudly Hold Their Certificates. |
Deputy Prime Minister Dinkic told guests, “It is important that we honor those municipalities that stand out in comparison to others for their stance towards local and foreign investors so that they could be role models for those municipalities that have not yet been certified”, adding that “The central government does not have the sole responsibility for attracting investments. The government is important in that it offers a global macroeconomic and political stability and financial incentives, but financial incentives are not the most important for investors. What is important is that in the town or municipality in which they want to do business, the local government is not bureaucratized, that it issues construction permits fast, and that it quickly connects factories to the communal services they need.”
Dinkic also concluded that “All the municipalities certified today are located on Corridor 10, noting that besides efficient local governments, good traffic connections with European destinations are key for attracting foreign investments and that thus the government should build new highways in other than the existing directions.” He closed by saying that “Even the poorest municipalities can be attractive for investments, if the local government and administration puts in sufficient efforts.”
Alberto Cammarata, the Head of the Sector for European Integrations at the EU Delegation, said that “European integrations do not happen in Brussels but at the local level, and emphasized that the local authorities are the face of the EU for their citizens. We want prosperity to be evenly spread.”
Ambassador Mary Warlick noted that “The five municipalities being honored today have proven that they understand the needs of business and have learned to look at their municipalities from an investor’s point of view.”
USAID provided financial and technical assistance in the design of this Certification Program. Mayors of municipalities played a significant role in developing the criteria that are now being used in the certification process.
Bujanovac, Leskovac, Pirot, Subotica and Vranje are among those local governments that are looking to the business environment as an opportunity, and are ready to work above and beyond the minimum of local government's responsibilities. Two of the municipalities had to overcome major obstacles to quality for certification - Vranje had to complete a new general urban plan and Subotica had to obtain development sites to offer to investors. To accomplish this, Subotica recently concluded a three-year negotiation with the Ministry of Defense to acquire two surplus military complexes.
Many municipalities in Serbia are taking the same path, expressing their wish to compete with others in the country and in the region and participating in the Certification process. Eighteen more towns and municipalities are currently in the process of becoming certified, while over one third of all Serbian municipalities, a total of 53, have submitted applications to the National alliance for Local Economic Development for participation in the Business Friendly Certification program.
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