The Workshop Certificate leading to investors was held on Thursday 15th July, at Club Businessman. It was organized by NALED. The Workshop was attended by the representatives of 5 local self-governments (cities: Subotica, Loznica, Leskovac, Kragujevac and Vranje) and media representatives of media houses (Politika, Blic, TV Pink, TV B92, RTS TV, NIN, Ekomonist, Kurir, Press, Privredni pregled).

At the beginning of the Workshop, the attendees were addressed by Goran Zivkov, SEEDEV Consultant who presented the importance of Certification Program of Business Friendly Municipalities, pointing out the Certificate is not the end of work. Further progress of local self-governments largely depends on the activities aimed at more intensive promotion of investment potential through high-quality PR and designed marketing activities of a municipality.

David Banjai, Director of Ball Packaging, from perspective of a large greenfield investor who decided to do business in Serbia, presented the basic parameters on which basis their company decided to invest in our country. Primarily, Mr. Banjai believes that in addition to basic conditions due to which companies decide to invest, human factor is the most important because it makes a significant difference in competitiveness of administration and labor which is available to investors.

During group work, the representatives of certified local self-governments presented promotional material, PR articles and communicational techniques with the media to journalists and editors. Through an interactive approach and constructive dialogue, there came following conclusions: local self-governments should proactively act to the media and provide more intensive engagement of information services, more frequent communication with the media, access to statements and features, and materials that contain concrete, concise and clear information. Continuity and consistency in promotion, designed access to print and electronic media, creating and launching news with quantified information on results are also offered as suggestions for the municipalities which are ready to work on their own promotion and attracting investment.

In future, NALED will continue to organize workshops on local level with the aim of intensive dialogue and consultation between the certified local self-governments and representatives of selected media.

Organized by NALED, at Media Center, on 13th July 2010 was held a Round Table, this time, on the theme of great importance for both economic entities in Serbia and Serbian citizens themselves, who are often faced with various complicated procedures.

The theme of meeting was the Regulatory Reform of Serbia – Out of Maze?. NALED Quarterly Report II on the activities of Serbian Government and relevant institutions in implementation of Legislative Reform, the degree of progress in implementation, the opinion of businessmen and citizens, the position of Serbia in comparison to other countries within our economic environment, as well as further steps in the process of simplification and modification of administrative procedures for business operations in Serbian were presented to the attendees.

The aim of Round Table was to get, among the rest, some answers on questions such as:

How many insignificant regulations are abolished?

Are deadlines met?

How much money is saved?

How much money does Serbia still lose due to unadopted recommendations?

Which relevant institutions were the most active?

In which institutions is the progress of reform slow?

Are the needs of economy listened to?

Do we need to be compared to the states with worse results or should we serve as a model in the region?

The moderator of the meeting was Mr. Misa Brkic, editor of Economics column in daily newspaper Politika, who, after a brief review of the activity and presentation of participants, gave the opening statement to Mr. Vladimir Cupic, Chairman of NALED Managing Board. In his address, Mr.Cupic, at first expressed his gratitude and wished welcome a large number of those who are interested in this action, and then regretted the same is not completed within anticipated period, and it was 30th June. Concerning a number of explicit recommendations of businessmen for this issue, which were merged in NALED Grey Book I and II, Chairman of Managing Board pointed out the essence of this entire action, which is to make Serbia to become an affective environment for all domestic and foreign investors. Mr. Cupic has spoken with some reservations about what has been done so far, considering that, as he said, data on changes are hardly accessible and insufficiently transparent. He stressed that the reforms are not consistently implemented, but also, on the other hand, that the ministries and state bodies do not share equal enthusiasm for the Regulatory Reform implementation, according to the fact that among them, as the most active, stand out Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Infrastructure and Ministry of Economy and Regional Development. On this occasion, Mr. Cupic urged government bodies to join the regulations simplification process and invited all to participate actively in order to contribute to the completion of Comprehensive Regulatory Reform Process.

Mr. Branko Radulovic, in front of CRR Unit, spoke about the effects and concrete results of the action. Total calculated savings are in the amount of 180 million euros, which only refers to 33 quantified recommendations out of total 340 recommendations. Out of 217 recommendations sent to the Government, 63 were implemented, and about 150 recommendations are still in implementation phase. Mr. Radulovic highlighted 4 problems which were crucial to implementation:

1. Meet deadlines by regulators themselves

2. Quality of submitted initiatives

3. Uncertain regulatory position regarding eligibility of certain recommendations

4. Some deadlines are too ambitiously set

"Compared to countries in the region, according to results achieved so far, it can be said that Serbia is, if it is no better, then at least, on the same level" – accesses Mr. Radulovic.

Director of Tax Administration Novi Sad, Mr. Zoran Radoman, spoke about the steps which they have undertaken so far, highlighting particularly the introduction of one-stop shop system together with other bodies, and then Call center which began working, as well as a unique register of taxpayers, but admits that they are not sufficiently active in that work area and can certainly give a greater contribution. Mr. Radoman notices that the reason for lack of activity is that the Tax administration has tasks, namely jobs which are not taxable, such as evaluation of market value of real estate property, obligation to monitor the employment of persons with disabilities, collection of revenues which are transferred to the jurisdiction of local self-governments and numerous other tasks. The problem is also a fact that there is no continuity of management and leadership in the Tax Administration, as since the establishment in 2003 and so far, it has changed 5 Directors, and information and communication systems of Tax Administration are pretty bad.

Mr. Dusan Vasiljevic, Head of Legal Team of USAID/MEGA Programme, talking about aspect of administrative burden for the local level, during that occasion, he mentioned initiatives which should make competition between Serbian cities and municipalities in making better service for the economy. One of those initiatives is the Certification of business friendly municipalities which gives very good results. Another initiative refers to measurement of extent of local tax burden in Serbian cities and municipalities. The World Bank, according to the extent of tax burden, ranks Serbia 37, but according to the extent of administrative burden for the economy, Serbia ranks 137 out of 183 countries! In fact, it is calculated that an average Serbian med-sized firm needs 279 working hours per year only due to administrative procedures, which converted to working days represents 35 working days per year to a person who deals only with administrative procedures!

Mr. Vasiljevic referred to the fact that in the latest edition of the Grey Book it is stated that Ministry of Finance is responsible for the largest number of complaints of businessmen, at the time there were 39, and in the latest NALED Quarterly Report it can be seen that this Ministry was the most active state authority to remove these recommendations, by implementing 26 recommendations. "You may think it is a coincidence, but I like to attribute it to NALED", Mr. Vasiljevic concluded his presentation. Upon the completion of Round Table, there was a cocktail party for the media and others.