Two-thirds of companies will continue to invest in Serbia, despite the coronavirus pandemic, according to the results of the annual survey of the American Chamber of Commerce in Serbia on investor confidence and satisfaction. Despite the decline in investments and profits, employment has remained the same, said Amalija Pavic, Deputy Executive Director of the Chamber, as a guest on the RTS morning program, ahead of the ministerial online conference at which the results will be presented.
Amalija Pavic says that the American Chamber of Commerce, which represents 200 American, international and domestic companies that employ over 100,000 citizens of Serbia, measures the trust and satisfaction of investors based on their plans for next year.
“Two thirds of the members say that they will continue to invest, which means that the measure of trust is good and that they will stay here despite the situation brought by the coronavirus pandemic, the situation is currently stable,” said Amalija Pavic of AmCham.
According to her, the year was not easy for us, since 65% of members reported a reduction in business.
“Not all the reductions were the same, some were related to investments, some to the development of additional work, but investments and profits fell the most, but employment remained at the level of last year and that is good news,” Pavic added.
Although the pandemic has brought uncertainty, the deputy executive director of the Chamber says all AmCham members are adaptable to the new conditions.
“We now have a lot of experience, we believe that the situation will not be worse and that the vaccine will bring improvement, so in a way we know what we can expect and what we can do to make business better,” said Amalija Pavic.
AmCham: Government measures comprehensive and timely
The measures of the Serbian Government to suppress the negative economic consequences of Covid were good, comprehensive and timely, so the American Chamber of Commerce in Serbia evaluates the first aid package from April.
“They blocked a direction we didn’t want to continue and ended the uncertainty. The measures during the vander state were well assessed, because they were the fastest to suppress the spread of the virus, so our investors claim that it could have been better targeted to which sectors really need help,” stated Amalija Pavic.
She says that this year the Chamber will recommend to the Government to improve e-Government, ie to completely transfer administrative tasks online.
“We saw during the state of emergency that it could do that. We saw a huge jump in digitalization in the private sector, so we want that acceleration in the public sector as well, for it to be a complete digitalization,” said the AmCham representative.
When it comes to the gray economy, the results of the Chamber show that it falls on the list of priorities, because we no longer have illegal traders on the streets, however, the fight against illegal online trade should be strengthened, concluded Amalija Pavic, RTS reports.
