CEVES Newsletter
Our New Year's resolution is to be in more direct contact with you to strengthen our mutual communication and support in the endeavor to make Serbia a better society. We take this opportunity to wish you a happy new year, and to briefly summarize our work and focus.
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We advocate for „genuine“ socio-economic development, which brings prosperity – growing income but also opportunities for fulfilling non-material needs and rights – to all citizens, which „leaves no one behind“, which recognizes the need to protect even those yet to be born—because it is environmentally sustainable. That is why we have embraced the United Nations' 2030 Agenda, and you can find our vision for Serbia in 2030 and the priorities that we and our partners advocate for on the document Platform Sustainable Development for All. We are fighting for the realization of this vision on three fronts.
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Empowerment of domestic economy, which consists of small and medium-sized enterprises, or enterprises that were until recently, and which are in the shadow of foreign investments and the public sector. After a decade of destruction and two decades of arduous transformation, a new domestic economy has emerged : a reservoir of knowledge, skills, and entrepreneurial energy which, with adequate cooperation and support, can ensure the development of the most remote regions of the country, as well as bring us to the forefront of the technological revolution.
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Strong, responsible, and transparent institutions, at the European level, before which everyone has equal rights, which do not wait for a „nod from above“ but plan policies to know what to do and where to invest the ever-increasing funds at our disposal. With such institutions, the response to the pandemic would also be more economical and effective.
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CEVES POSITION
Recent protests have been successful in that they led to the amendment or non-adoption of two laws, as they touched upon the broader and deeper distrust that Serbian society—and not just opposition voters—harbors towards the state. This distrust, or rather the weakness of the institutions that produce it, is costing us increasingly more in terms of genuine socio-economic development. We wrote about how this will particularly cost us in the mining sector in the article in NIN.
Green Development, about which awareness in Serbia is finally awakening. It is not, as the message from the top of the government suggests, a mistake to abandon coal. Green development should be embraced because it leads to the future and because development that develops people is based on smarter, less energy- intensive industries.
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CEVES OBSERVATORY
The fact that all important decisions in Serbia are made from one center (of power) instead of decentrally is costing us development opportunities. For example, the annual inflow of FDI in the last three years is almost two billion euros higher than in the period 2013-2014, however, Serbia is only using the opportunity to leverage its good position and attract higher quality investments in the automotive industry, which accounts for only 10% of this increase (an increase of about 200 million EUR annually). This is the „exception that proves the rule“ because teams—both from the Serbian and German sides (where most of these investments come from)—are systematically working on attracting the automotive industry. Apart from the often-disputed tire industry, inflows into the rest of the manufacturing industry are unchanged or even declining! The main increase in inflows occurred in real estate construction (which we will explain later!), and in the mining and basic metals sectors – precisely in the “few large projects“ sectors where negotiations and decisions can depend on one person.
Source: National Bank of Serbia. // Methodological explanations
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Great thanks to our partners from the “Sustainable Development for All” project, as well as GIZ and SDC, then BTD, the National Convention on the European Union, USAID – Innovations Project, ILO, and other donors and partners who motivate us to jointly seek solutions for the challenges of a sustainable future for the Serbian economy and to consider opportunities for inclusion in supply chains, innovation, and support for the startup community and small and medium-sized enterprises.
We look forward to further cooperation!
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Your CEVES Team
Kori Udovički, Nemanja Šormaz, Pavle Medić, Ivona Janović, Marijana Radovanović, Lana Hadži-Niković, Viktor Bačanek, Lazar Ivanović
