EBRD: Serbia is once again regional leader in reforms

Serbia is once again the leader in the speed at which the reforms are carried out among the countries in the region of southeast Europe with the gross national product growth of 6% prior to the end of year 2006 and foreign ivnestments of about 4 billion EUR. This was announced by the representatives of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) in their "Report on Transition" for year 2006.

Representing that document, the head economist of EBRD, Peter Sanfi, said that the further progress of Serbia in the reforms was not surprising because it had been on the low starting base six years before and he stated that Serbia was the second in the region in the amount of direct foreign investments, right behind Romania that collected about 8 billion EUR in 2006, whereas the entire region received investments in amount of nearly 20 billion EUR.

However, Sanfi warned that the new Government of Serbia would face the biggest challenges in 2007, such as restructuring and privatization of big public companies, continuation of negotiations about stabilization and EU joining, as well as application of already adopted laws, which is rather slow, especially application of the Law on bankruptcy.