The President of Serbia, Aleksandar Vucic, and the Head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Mission, Jan Kees Martijn, discussed a new advisory arrangement which, as assessed in the statement of the President’s Office, is of special importance in the light of improving the general investment climate in Serbia.
Having in mind the huge progress of Serbia in the past eight years, the priority goal of this arrangement will be to preserve the achieved results, but also to provide support in further implementation of structural reforms aimed at even faster, stronger and more sustainable growth, Vucic said.
He thanked the IMF and the personal engagement of Jan Kees Martijn for the professional and expert support “on which Serbia largely counts”.
As stated in the statement, Vucic pointed out that Serbia will pay special attention to reforms in public companies, and that the priorities will continue to be investments in infrastructure, creating an even better climate for investments, greater investments in the environment, science and capital projects, which, it is estimated, will additionally and in the long run contribute to stable financial growth in the coming years.
Vucic, Martijn and members of the IMF delegation talked via video link, and one of the conclusions is that “Serbia’s main goal remains to preserve the hard-earned reputation of a fiscally secure country, as well as to continue responsible fiscal policy so that public debt does not exceed the level of 60 percent of GDP, which allows Serbia to resolutely continue to work on further economic growth.”
They also referred to incentive measures and three aid packages to mitigate the consequences of the pandemic, and Martijn, as it was pointed out, welcomed Serbia’s responsible economic policy and successful crisis management during the pandemic, and reminded that the IMF did not adjust Serbia’s 5% economic growth projection.
Vucic emphasized that Serbia “is already on the right path to achieving the planned growth of 6% after the first quarter of 2021, as predicted, since one of the main focuses of the Government of Serbia is investing in large infrastructure projects and intensifying work on attracting direct foreign investment,” N1 reports.
