USAID’s Cooperation for Growth project released the findings of USAID’s eighth Annual Business Survey. The survey reflects opinions of 1,000 Serbian businesses on the state of Serbia’s business environment, and shows improvement in many areas, including transparency and predictability of the regulatory environment, inspection efficiency, and labour law procedures.
“It is important to note that 72% of businesses agree or partially agree that transparency and predictability for doing business have increased in the past year. This is certainly related to the improvements in the quality of public dialogue on economic issues, and public administration’s efficiency,” said United States Ambassador Kyle Scott. “Unfortunately, the survey confirms that we haven’t seen much improvement in businesses’ ability to obtain financing. That’s an area where USAID needs to continue working alongside our Serbian partners.”
The survey showed that in the past seven years it has gotten easier for businesses to comply with laws and regulations and businesses have more influence on reforms of laws that affect them. In 2019 approximately 58 percent of businesses reported that the burden of laws and regulations decreased, and 64 percent of respondents agreed that the businesses’ ability to participate in legislative reforms has improved. This means that businesses have a better environment in which to grow and create jobs for Serbian citizens.
“Looking at the trends in the survey it is clear that we have significantly improved our business environment,” said Branko Ružić, Minister of Public Administration and Local Self-Government. “I was happy to see that 74 percent of businesses find that the public administration’s work is more efficient now than a year ago. Our work on e-government solutions led to the improvements in the burden of wage taxes and contributions, inspections, and money and time spent on regulatory issues.”
The USAID Business Survey was carried out in collaboration with the Serbian Chamber of Commerce and Ipsos Strategic Marketing. The survey’s full results are available at http://saradnja.rs.