Meeting with the World Bank delegation

During the meeting, President Vučić and World Bank representatives discussed the progress of the economic growth agenda, the European Union's "Green Growth" programme, as well as the mini Schengen initiative.

 

"Serbia is the leader in Europe in terms of economic growth in the previous three quarters," said President Vučić, adding that everything Serbia has done so far has been positively assessed by the world's most credible financial institutions, such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. He expressed satisfaction with the cooperation with the World Bank representatives, who have contributed a lot to the development of the Serbian economy.

 

The interlocutors especially emphasised the importance of reforming and improving the public sector efficiency, which will significantly affect economic growth through stimulating investments, flexibility of financial instruments for companies in Serbia, workforce training, productivity raising and business environment improvement. The implementation of these reforms will enable Serbia to reach a growth rate of over 5% next year. 

 

The topic of today's meeting with the World Bank delegation was the European development implementation through green growth, to provide Serbia with medium-term competitiveness, access to the EU markets and environmental flexibility.

 

President Vučić asked the representatives of the World Bank to bring the initiative of regional economic connection (mini Schengen) closer to our partners from the region and present them with the economic benefits that this initiative can render for all countries in the region, especially since the first World Bank analyses indicate that the introduction of mini Schengen would lead to large savings in trade costs of as much as 10% to 14% at annual level.

 

VIDEO MATERIAL CAN BE DOWNLOADED FROM THE FTO SERVER OF THE MINISTRY OF DEFENCE. 

 

Belgrade, 1st October 2020