The policy of subsidizing foreign investors is something that our country needed in order to start our economy after many years of stagnation. When it comes to reducing the number of unemployed, it seems that the system has given results, but it is debatable how much subsidies really affect the rate of economic growth? The fact is that we cannot and will not be able to do so without subsidies for a long time, but the question is who should be given that money and who not, and why should the IT community in Serbia be particularly concerned about this?
Investment in foreign companies must stop
Investing taxpayers’ money in foreign companies, which only require the simplest manual work, is a practice that must come to an end and that we should finally direct those funds to those companies that bring us new technologies, employ the most qualified workforce and finally export that expensive product from of Serbia for serious money.
To tell the truth, that has already started to happen, which is encouraging, but here again we partially managed to create a version from scratch. Certain global IT giants came to Serbia and, of course, received subsidies from the state per workplace, in the amount of several thousand euros per employee. In the long term, it is an excellent investment, but it seems that no one thought about the consequences that such a business model had on our IT industry, which is the most vital part of the Serbian economy.
Experiences of companies
“We didn’t have that situation, but part of the development team partially felt it, because such a situation happened in some other cities, for example in Niš, where such large companies also opened, supported by subsidies.” – he points out. Roberto Poletto, director of sales and marketing at the company Coming – Computer Engineering, adds: “The first wave was dangerous and then people ran after the conditions offered. In our case, a couple of people left, I’m not saying that it wasn’t, but again I think that what was crucial was the feeling the employees have when you are at work. Do they go out happy in the morning or sad, with a stomach ache? This is something that we should strive for, because the salary is not always the most important factor.”
Sign up for business updates & specials
