National Alliance for Local Economic Development (NALED) has awarded a Vice-President of the Government of Serbia and Minister of Construction, Transport and Infrastructure Zorana Mihajlović with a title Reformer of the year. The award was granted for the successful introduction of electronic system for issuing building permits in 2016, at the X annual conference “The results and the direction of reform 2016/2017” held in the Belgrade City Hall.
In its first year of application, the government received more than 53,000 e-requests for construction and resolved as much as 95%, with 80% of them positively, while the number of permits issued in the first 11 months of last year got increased by one-fifth compared to the same period in 2015. This reform what contributed for Serbia the most to enter the top 50 countries in terms of ease of doing business in the Doing business list of the World Bank. “E-licences have made a real revolution in the treatment of Administration, introduced full transparency in the work of the competent authority, eliminated opportunities for corruption and multiply shortened the procedure of issuing building permits and now on average, it takes less than 10 days. The World Bank has recognised this reform as one of the 10 largest in the world. NALED’s Top Reformer Award deservedly went into the hands of the Minister Mihajlović and we can say it is the reform decade and we are proud that NALED had an important role in this “- said the Chairman of the Board of NALED Goran Kovačević.
The importance of the introduction of e-licenses in Serbia was recognised by the wider international community. NALED has provided financial support to the Government of Switzerland and Germany for software development. The Government of the United States and Great Britain are through USAID and the Fund for the good management have helped in the development of the system, training civil servants and preparing action plans while the reform included the European Union. Special award for his contribution to improving the business environment and the position of Serbia on the list Doing business went to the Director of Business Registers Agency Zvonko Obradović. Subotica was awarded as the most successful city in issuing e-licenses, Malo Crniće as the most successful municipality and the municipality of Brus recorded the greatest improvement in the efficiency of licencing. To contribute to quality reporting on economic reforms recognition went to the editor of TV Pink Tatjana Spalević, RTS journalist Tamara Tankosić and journalist of RTV Borislav Despotović.
The event presented to the ninth edition of the Grey Book of regulations where NALED gives 100 recommendations and solutions for the removal of bureaucratic obstacles to business, including 22 new proposals and 63 procedures that are awaiting resolution. Among the key recommendations of the new edition of Gray book stand out proposals to reduce taxes and contributions on the minimum wage and the introduction of tax progressivity, para-fiscal reform, the introduction of electronic services for the application of seasonal workers, standardisation of criteria for the taxation of lump sum agencies, storing business documents in electronic form and simplifying the exercise of rights to maternity allowance.
