The Annual Assembly of the Montenegrin Foreign Investors’ Council was held on November 21st with the presence of most of the member companies. In line with regular procedure, in the first part of the Assembly President of the Council Mr. Christoph Schoen and Executive Director Mrs. Marija Sukovic presented Council’s activities in the previous period, financial report, membership status and planned activities for upcoming period. The 2017 was active year for MFIC that was involved in many important processes concerning the business environment in the country. The MFIC community is growing with planned pace, attracting the reputable new members that contribute to vision and mission of Council.
Communication with Government and public administration remains important task of organization, therefore finding the proper mechanisms and getting involved on different levels is essential, and beneficial for both sides. One of the main missions of MFIC is to be constructive and reliable partner to public administration, trying to understand the complexity and time consuming of some processes that state is dealing with. The next activity of MFIC will be related to preparation of addition of White Book 2016-2017 – collection of members suggestions and opinions and communicate them to Government.
In accordance with our Statute, the election process for President and members of- BoD was organized. The new one-year composition of the Board of Directors is as follows: Mrs. Nela Belevic (CEO of UNIQA Insurance), Mr. Nikola Ljushev (CEO of Crnogorski telekom), Mr. Pal Kovacs (CEO of CKB), and Mr. Rashad Rasullu (CEO Azmont Investment). Mr. Christoph Schoen, CEO of Addiko Bank is re-elected for the position of the President of the Council and President of BoD.
As a special part of this year MFIC Assembly, we had the honor to host Prime Minister of Montenegro Mr. Dusko Markovic as guest speaker.
PM Markovic congratulated new management team of the Foreign Investors Council for their appointment and expressed his satisfaction in participating in the work of the Annual Assembly of the Council. He stressed that the economic policy measures of the 41st Government gave excellent results which was also well noted by relevant international institutions such as: the World Bank, International Monetary Fund and European Commission, which gives to the Government additional encouragement to continue in the same direction. He stressed that despite the challenges, European economy is recovering with a projection of growth of 2.3% this year and that the Western Balkans region has the estimated growth of 2.6%.
PM reminded that in 2017, Montenegro achieved one of its most important foreign policy priorities, which is NATO membership, adding that this already gave unprecedented opportunities for the growth of Montenegrin economy and new employment which confirms the correctness of Montenegrin politics which treats membership to NATO not only as a matter of security, but also as a precondition for further economy development. The Prime Minister briefed Foreign Investors Council on the results of fiscal consolidation as well as on policy-related structural reform policies. He presented ongoing development projects, emphasizing that the Government is particularly focused on the development of the Northern Region. Speaking of plans for the future, PM said that in 2018 there will be no new fiscal consolidation measures, and that in the dialogue with stakeholders, including with the Foreign Investors Council, the possibility of reducing tax burden on labor will be considered.
After the introductory presentation, the members of the Council put questions to the Prime Minister regarding current topics such as the suppression of the gray economy, the solutions from the Draft Law on Labor, the development of ICT in Montenegro, and the process of European integration.
Assembly was concluded with Cocktail organized for members of MFIC, Prime Minister and representatives of Government.
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Montenegrin Foreign Investors’ Council is an association of leading foreign investors doing business in Montenegro. It is a non-governmental and non-profit organisation, established in 2009, with the aim to help improve investment climate and support business development in Montenegro.
The Council represents and expresses common interests of its members with the goal to further stimulate direct foreign investment in Montenegro and to facilitate communication and cooperation between the investors and official authorities of the state. It is also the best platform for sharing relevant information and align interests of various private owned industries in the country.