The Annual Assembly of the Montenegrin Foreign Investors’ Council took place on November 21 st hosted by CentreVille Hotel
The Annual Assembly of the Montenegrin Foreign Investors’ Council was held on November 21 st 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 2018 was active year for MFIC that was involved in many important processes concerning the business environment in the country. Special emphasis has been put to promotion and recognition of ICT sector as a growing potential for Montenegro and ICT solutions as a precondition for further development in all sectors. MFIC members have concluded that digitalization is the responsibility of both state and private sector to create sensible and smart framework to allow digital
transformation and have offered the Government their help and support in this process. 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 official authorities for the purpose of overcoming problems and obstacles that foreign investors face in order to increase attractiveness and competitiveness of the Montenegrin economy. As a member of the Competitiveness Council and other inter-ministerial working groups MFIC has actively participated in shaping business friendly environment in Montenegro. The next activity of MFIC will be related to preparation of White Book 2017-2018 – collection of members’ suggestions and opinions and their communication to the Government. In 2019 MFIC will also prepare new Guide to the MFIC and Investment Guide.
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 Vitic (Executive Director of Ocean Montenegro), Mr. Pal Kovacs (CEO of CKB), Mr. Antonis Semelides (CEO of Jugopetrol) and Mr. Ivan Bojanovic (CEO of Saga Montenegro). Mr. Christoph Schoen, CEO of Addiko Bank is re-elected for the position of the President of the Council and President of BoD and Mr. Pal Kovacs is re-elected as the member of BoD while Mr. Ivan Radulovic is appointed as the new MFIC Executive Director.
As a special part of MFIC Assembly, this year we also 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 expressed satisfaction with the results that the Government has achieved in the first half of its mandate emphasizing that public finances have been stabilized, macroeconomic stability has remained and investment activity has increased. 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 2019 there will be no new fiscal consolidation measures, and that in the dialogue with stakeholders, including Foreign Investors Council, the possibility of reducing tax burden on labor will be considered. After the introductory presentation, the members of the Council have put questions to the Prime Minister regarding current topics such as further activities on adoption of the Fiscalisation Law, planned activities of the Government towards further development of digital economy, possibility of introducing solutions for payments in real time into Montenegrin financial system and further Government activities oriented towards improvement of business environment taking into consideration Montenegro’s decline in global ranking in the latest World Bank Doing Business Report. 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 organization, 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.