The American Chamber of Commerce in Serbia (AmCham) welcomes the appointment of the team of the new Government of the Republic of Serbia, as well as the efforts of all participants in combating the health challenges posed by the COVID pandemic, while considering the problems facing the economy and proposing concrete measures to overcome them.
Congratulating the Prime Minister on the new term, Ms. Ana Brnabic, Zoran Petrovic, President of AmCham, said that we felt the first effects of the COVID pandemic as an economy, but that in 2020 they were mitigated by state aid measures.
He emphasized that the final impact on the economy will be visible in the next 6 months, so we have ahead of us joint work with the new Government of Serbia on further preservation of the health of our citizens, preservation of jobs and more efficient recovery of our economy.
“I appeal to the new government to continue working on improving the efficiency of health services and electronic services, with further improvement of the rule of law and tax predictability, because these are areas that determine the speed of recovery,” Petrovic concluded.
In order to preserve as many jobs as possible, but also to recover the economy as quickly as possible, AmCham has formulated four priority goals for capacity building of public administration and economic recovery: continuous development of eGovernment, further improvement of rule of law and efficiency of justice and improving the predictability of the tax and parafiscal burden.
Continuous development of e-Government
Efficient eGovernment brings significant reductions in administrative costs to the state and the economy, while increasing transparency and reducing opportunities for corruption. In this sense, it is necessary:
• Enabling the submission of documentation in all administrative procedures (court proceedings, labor relations, etc.) electronically without requiring the subsequent issuance of paper documents.
• Reduction of administration related to foreign currency payments, collection and credit operations in coordination with the Tax Administration.
• Enabling full electronic communication with all border services, including inspection bodies and their connection to the IT system of the Customs Administration.
• Provision of staff and specialization of inspections for the control of illicit trade on the Internet, especially in the field of medicines and medical devices.
• Enabling the exchange of relevant data between the public and private sectors in order to reduce the administrative burden of transactions (eg in banking) following the example of the EU.
Improving the rule of law and the efficiency of the judiciary
Citizens and economies want to see a state based on the rule of law, a state in which all citizens and companies are equal, and an efficient and independent judicial system is a precondition and measure of such a system. It is necessary to enable:
• Automation of the procedure of delivery of court documents and availability of delivery data in electronic form, in order to avoid postponement of hearings due to failed deliveries, and during the epidemic to enable a larger number of processes via video conferencing
• Expansion of the e-Court application for digitalized case management from the Administrative Court to other courts, as well as to the bodies of executive procedure with Systematization and availability of court practice in electronic form
• Functional specialization of judicial teams within courts (especially, for example, the Administrative Court for matters of tax proceedings, competition protection, etc.), following the example of specialization conducted by the Commercial Court of Appeals, and their continuous education according to areas of specialization.
• Ensure harmonization of local case law with the judgments of the European Court of Justice so that the application of regulations that are harmonized with EU regulations is ensured at the level of judicial protection.
Improving the efficiency of health services
Bearing in mind that health care is under great pressure, it is necessary to additionally invest in its development and eliminate obstacles that prevent it. This includes measures that will enable faster access to new drugs and technologies for patients, synergies between the public and private sectors in order to increase the availability of health care, and optimization of public procurement and monitoring of stocks. In this sense, it is necessary to:
• Provide sufficient capacity for PCR testing at the request of companies, and at the height of the pandemic, to better organize the work of employers and enable sampling at the employer’s premises.
• Organize as much access as possible to health services and therapies for non-covid chronic and emergency patients during the peak of the pandemic, using telemedicine platforms and the synergy of the public and private sectors.
• Ensure that all administrative procedures for licensing, renewal, approval of variations and promotional materials for medicines are performed within the legal deadlines. Support ALIMS to align the new electronic platform for conducting administrative procedures for medicines with deadlines, and possibly consider staffing reinforcements and procedural facilitations that will provide this.
Improving the predictability of the tax and parafiscal burden
The predictability of the tax system and parafiscal burdens are one of the key parameters for potential investors when making investment decisions. In order to maintain, but also increase the level of domestic and foreign investments, it is necessary to:
• Ensure that the fiscal and parafiscal burden is not increased, and, if possible, reduced, with the consistent application of all economic support programs
• Make all changes to tax regulations after a public debate and extensive consultations with the economy, and improve the application of tax regulations by writing comprehensive regulations on the application of regulations, instead of relying on a system of opinion.
Prescribe tax aspects of electronic invoicing and provide a test period for electronic invoices of at least 9 months, Danas reports.
