State wants to help market chains – possibility of loan for payment to suppliers taken in consideration

On Wednesday, May 13th, Mlađan Dinkić, the Minister of Economy and Regional Development, and a group of his closest associates visited Serbian Association of Managers. On that occasion, members of the Association – respectable Serbian managers, among whom were Slobodan Vučićević, Zoran Drakulić, Bojan Radun, Aleksandar Radosavljević and others, informed the Minister on the activities and objectives of the Association, and then spoke about the issues that concerned education of managers and regional cooperation, as well as about acute problems faced by the companies, the most serious of which was difficult collecting of debts.

The Minister of Economy, Mlađan Dinkić, said that the state would try to find the model that would make it possible for large market chains to pay the debts to their suppliers. Total amount of debts is about 600m EUR at the moment, and one of the possibilities is that the state grants a loan to the market chains, and the money from that loan would not be paid to them, but to their suppliers. Minister Dinkić explained that the guarantee that the market chains would repay the loan would be the mortgage on their facilities.

- The state can not allow large market chains to sink minor suppliers. We will find the model in association with the authorized Ministry of Trade and Services – said Dinkić.

He agreed with the representatives of Serbian Association of Managers that the members of that organization should make the list of their claims. They also spoke about launching of special website where suppliers would register their claims by themselves.

The representatives of Serbian Association of Managers pointed out that 54% of payments had been done following the expiration of deadlines, while the rest of them were made within 90 days.

On behalf of the members of Serbian Association of Managers, President Slobodan Vučićević complimented the joint project of the Ministry of Economy and the National Employment Agency, which should enable financing of training period for 10,000 young trainees. On that occasion, Vučićević offered support and partnership of SAM in realization of this significant project through engagement of large number of young trainees in the companies that are run by the members of the Association.