Presentation of the seventh edition of the “White Book”
The investment climate in Montenegro, as seen by foreign investors
The Montenegrin Foreign Investors’ Council (MFIC) presented today the seventh edition of the White Book which provides the overview of the investment and business climate in 2015 seen by the largest foreign investors, members of the Council.
The President of the Council, Mr. Christoph Schoen, reminded in his opening speech that the Council is established in 2009, that it has 35 members and that its importance is measured by the fact that its members provide 8000 jobs and make around 30% of national GDP. The main role of the Council is a proactive approach in establishing a more stimulating and more favorable business climate in the country as well as cooperation and dialogue with decision makers on the national and local levels.
The White Book is the most significant document of the Council. More specifically, business index indicates the assessment of ease of doing business in Montenegro based on the perception of the members. So, in the fifth year of monitoring this index, we notice that it is quite stable, with a figure of 6.2 for 2015 – which is lower than 2013 and 2014 when the rating was 6.3. In other words, even though the Council understands the different factors that have impacted the business environment, our members indicated through this index that there have not been enough positive changes, that the pace of reforms and improvement of business environment is not at the level required to achieve the expected results or that the reforms have stagnated and that a lot is expected from the forthcoming reforms to go deeper to the very heart of the issues and provide results that would turn the slowed progress into a more dynamic development process.
It is important to say that a specific number of changes that we have witnessed contributed to an improvement to the investment climate, http://acheterdufrance.com/ which was confirmed by the results of the research of numerous international organisations, but still, there were some adverse changes and there are important areas where the situation is not yet good enough.
When we have a look at the indicators for assessment of individual sectors, i.e. the sectors to which our members belong, the indicators for telecommunications, tourism, production and energy have increased compared to the previous year while the rating for banking/finance has reduced. When rating individual areas, the members estimate that, except for real estate development, which records a positive trend and the rule of law, which is stable, a negative trend is recorded in taxation, corporate governance and the labour market and employment.
Special attention is paid to the regulatory framework that is envisaged to stimulate market development, create jobs, increase productivity and attract investments. Bearing this in mind, our members have submitted to the Government more than 90 comments on 19 laws, while the Government has accepted or taken into account 64% of the recommendations.
In addition to the MFIC representatives, the press conference was attended by Mr. Pavle Radulović, Minister of Sustainable Development and Tourism, Ms. Bojana Bošković, Deputy Minister of Finance and Mr. Goran Šćepanović, General Director in the Ministry of the Economy.
In conversation with journalists, Mr. Radulović said that the Government would take into account the recommendations of the MFIC and that the focus of the economic policy in the following period would be the removal of the obstacles to economic growth and development, and an increase in economic competitiveness, standards, creation of jobs and improvement of living standards in Montenegro.
Podgorica, 25 January 2017
