Eight municipalities receive favorable business environment certificates

The certificate "Municipality with Favorable Business Environment", awarded by the National Alliance for Local Economic Development (NALED), was presented on Monday to eight municipalities in Serbia.

These municipalities are Cacak, Zajecar, Zrenjanin, Ruma, Stara Pazova, Valjevo, Nis, and Sremska Mitrovica. The NALED certificate of favorable business environment was earlier presented to another eight local self-governments in Serbia.

Serbian Minister of Economy and Regional Development Nebojsa Ciric said at the certificate awarding ceremony in the National Parliament that local self-governments had grasped the significance of better business conditions, that is, better ways to provide services to citizens and the economy.

He stressed that there can be no large investment without active participation of the local self-government and added that there was a market game in Serbia between local self-governments at the moment, competing to attract investors and create new jobs.

According to the words of Ciric, municipalities will have both greater authority and bigger responsibility.

Chairman of the NALED Managing Board Vladimir Cupic said that the certificates confirmed that the municipalities were ready to be a good destination for someone's capital.

U.S. Ambassador to Serbia Mary Warlick stated that the NALED certificate was one of the most significant projects funded by the U.S. Agency for International Economic Development (USAID) and added that the municipalities that were presented with that document had showed their dedication to the development of local economy and wish to attract investors.

Ambassador of Japan to Serbia Toshio Tsunozaki said that the Japanese investors always examined all circumstances under which they were to operate before making an investment in a country.

He said that the decision of businessmen from Japan on investment in some countries was based on numerous factors such as geographic position and political stability.

Ambassador of Switzerland to Serbia Erwin Hofer pointed out that municipalities were "carrying" the development of the whole economy and that one of conditions for the development was increased competitiveness.