Kopaonik Business Forum 2020 – Local companies seeking to be equal to foreign ones

Foreign companies which are getting subsidies in Serbia can be an unfair competition to local companies, it was said at the panel dedicated to the national strategy for inclusive growth which was held at the Kopaonik Business Forum.

– We are not equal with foreign companies. We have nothing against them, let there be more of them, but our needs have to be taken care of as well. We don't want or need subsidies, but we believe that it's not right for only the foreign company which does the same job as a local one to be subsidized, as that makes them unequal – said Zoran Drakulic, the president of the Serbian Business Club “Privrednik”.

Andrija Vukovic, the CFO of MK Group, said that Serbia needed to make a selection of foreign direct investments.

– Now that the unemployment is not as big a problem as it was previously, we should make a smart selection of investments, in order to employ high quality workers. It would be wrong to finance direct foreign investments which have a low added value – Vukovic believes.

Drakulic said that there had been some good news from officials too, primarily those pertaining to the low inflation, the key policy rate of 2.25% and a drop in unemployment.

– The biggest surprise is the growth of the GDP in the third quarter of over 6%. The statistics say that it's the result of the construction works and the construction of TurkStream – Drakulic said.

The share of local private investments in 2018 was 8.5-9%, and according to the projections, it should reach 15% by 2025 so that ambitious development plans would be realized.

I. Milovanovic

Srpski poslovni klub Privrednik Beograd

MK Group d.o.o. Beograd

Kopaonik Business Forum 2020

KBF

Serbian Davos

Serbian Business Club Privrednik

Privrednik

Zoran Drakulić

MK Group

Andrija Vuković

foreign investments

selection of foreign investments

equality of local investors

competitiveness of local investors

inequality of local investors