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Success Stories

INVEST IN SERBIA
On Friday night of December 19, you will be sitting with dear friends and relatives. Of course, you are together to celebrate the most important Patron Saint’s Day, St Nicolas Day. Suddenly, as it always happens, someone started to talk about "big topics". Recession, world crisis, difficult year ahead of Serbia .... gloomy discussion without optimism continues.
  More about Invest in Serbia (PDF, 57Kb)  

BUSINESS FRIENDLY CERTIFICATION
Despite a late start, are we witnessing entrance of the Serbian municipalities into the regional competition for attracting investments? And how difficult that is, having in mind that Serbia lost 115 thousand jobs since 2005 in the corporate sector, mostly in socially owned enterprises, while the government's attention was focused on issues other than economic development?
  More about BusinesFriendly Certification (PDF, 73Kb) 

SREMSKA MITROVICA ON TRACK TOWARDS MORE EQUAL AND BUSINESS FRIENDLY LAND FINANCE
The Head of Budget and Finance Department of Sremska Mitrovica, Mr. Dusko Saroskovic announced at the local TV station that the reform formulated through the dialogue with the Municipal Economic Growth Activity will start by merging three local revenues: Land use fee, Property tax and the Self-contribution fee. Further steps include creation of a new Property tax with an extended taxpayers’ base. The first step, already undertaken by the municipality is the reunification of the databases of Property tax and Land use fee payers. The expected outcome of the project is to have more tax payers, higher revenues and a more business friendly tax policy.
Watch video clip (YouTube, 2.7MB, Serbian)

A MAP INSTEAD OF A YELLOW FENCE
 “Instead of taking the investor to the field and making him look around at all 4 sides of the world... we are now able to present him with a map where everything is very neatly and precisely presented at the first meeting, and an investor can consult the GIS using the municipal Web portal”, explainss Dragan Jankovic, Head of the Department of Economy in the Municipality of Indjija.
  More about Indjija GIS Web Access (PDF, 16Kb)

INDJIJA ON THE RISE: THE SKY IS THE LIMIT
It is quite common that people are caught by surprise when they hear of a winner such as Indjija, forgetting that every success usually implies years of dedicated work. The Indjija story rises hopes for the future. It shows other municipalities in Serbia that it is possible to change things and prevent the young from going elsewhere in search of jobs and a better life.
  More about Indjija On The Rise (PDF, 16Kb)

A LEDO IN NEED IS A FRIEND INDEED
The professional and caring attitude of the Loznica LEDO staff facilitated to a great extent the sometimes painful loan application process. The LEDO staff knows that sustainable local growth lies in the hands of private businesses and they gave their best in making the dreams of many small entrepreneurs come true.
  More about Loznica LEDO Success Story (PDF, 16Kb)

NALED BECOMES THE ENGINE OF CHANGE AND GROWTH
As Miroljub Cosic, Municipal Manager in Krusevac has put it: “We had excellent cooperation with USAID’s Municipal Economic Growth Activity, and we see NALED as a means to secure future sustainability of the results we had achieved with the USAID’s program. Another thing we expect is to raise the economic capacities of our Municipality.”
  More about NALED's activities (PDF, 16Kb)

How does Vranje attract big investors: When asked about the contribution of the municipality, Office for LED, and his own, leading to signing the deal on this investment, the Head of Vranje LED Office, Mr. Boban Stankovic, simply answered "Not much at all, just a few small services". But if you were to talk to Mr. Stankovic about the "few small services" you would find out that what it takes is a full committment and permanent dedication on the part of the entire municipal administration, led by the Mayor and LED Office to become the home of one of the biggest foreign investments in Serbia. 
 More about Vranje's six steps story (PDF, 87Kb)

NALED – Rocky Road to Success... 
 More about NALED's activities (PDF, 100Kb)

Loznica LED Office - It Pays Off to be the Best. The success of local government in promoting local economic development can be measured in different ways. One of the better ways is to be a recipient of the letter of intentions from interested investors. The municipality of Loznica, one of the most active MEGA program partners, has received as much as 11 letters of intentions during the last several months. This is the first time after five years that any investor showed interest in Loznica. The municipal LED Office of Loznica, created in partnership with MEGA, designed a number of activities which are directly impacting new interest of investors for this striving municipality.
 More about Loznica LED Office (PDF, 142Kb)

A group of thirty LED Office representatives from ten MEGA municipalities attend seminars organized every month aimed at strengthening their capacities and learning about new skills and good practices from the country, region and the world.
 More about LED seminars (PDF, 110 Kb)

Czech beer, Croatian chocolate, Macedonian wine and Serbian kaymak as driving enginers of local government progress. While some may think that this is all about world conspiracy and global espionage, other believe the official version that it is about efforts of local government units to reform and improve their work, but there is a gastronomical side, so to speak, of this story. So, let's take a look at it ...
 More about Czech beer and Serbian kaymak (PDF, 79 Kb)

MEGA Credit Analysis Software Tool (CAT) welcomed and utilized by municipalities for municipal budget planning for 2007, and as tool for municipalities and commercial banks to improve and access to loans for investment, too. 
 More about Credit Analysis Tool (PDF, 146 Kb)

Ljubica Magdic is one of the 50 new employees of the Rick Eis Company that will soon begin ice cream production in the municipality of Indjija.  The majority of the new employees in the factory are young women, who have been searching for job opportunities for several years.  With the establishment of the Training Center in Indjija, they have been given a chance.
 More about Training Center in Indjija (PDF, 147 Kb)

On Monday, March 6, 2006, at the Belgrade City Hall, the US Ambassador to Serbia and Montenegro, Michael C. Polt, signed the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Mayors of ten Serbian municipalities selected to participate in the first phase of the USAID-funded Municipal Economic Growth Activity (MEGA) project.  The President of Serbia, Mr. Boris Tadic, the Minister of International Economic Relations, Milan Parivodic, the Minister of State Administration and Local Government, Zoran Loncar, along with the representatives of some of the most prominent national and foreign companies, and representatives of organizations such as the Standing Conference of Towns and Municipalities, the American Chamber of Commerce (AmCham), the Foreign Investors Council, the Serbian Investment and Export Promotion Agency (SIEPA), and others, attended the event to express their support, and their willingness to participate, in what is perceived as the beginning of the process of local economic development in Serbia.
 More about MOU Signing Ceremony (PDF, 216 Kb)

National Alliance for Local Economic Development (NALED) organized a public forum on the latest constitutional reform and its implications on economic development and growth.  The forum was opened by professor Mijat Damjanović, NALED Coordinator, conducted by Milan Parivodić, the Minister of International Economic Relations, Slobodan Vučetić, former President of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Serbia, Ljubomir Madžar, professor at the Belgrade University, and professor Milan Kovačević, independent consultant for foreign investment, and attended by more than 80 guests in the Belgrade Media Center.
 More about NALED Forum on Constitution (PDF, 168 Kb)

Having as its goal to meet the emerging expectations of its members, NALED launched, in January 2007, the Legislative Tracking System (LTS), which is designed as integral part of the NALED’s website.  LTS tracks all legislative changes which may have an impact on the investment climate and business operations in Serbia.
 More about NALED LTS (PDF, 163 Kb)

On Friday, September 8, 2006, the first municipal Office for Local Economic Development (OLED) was opened in Zrenjanin.  This event has marked the fulfillment of one of the more important objectives of the MEGA program - establishment of functional LED Offices in all of its ten municipalities.  The LED Office will be in charge of the implementation of Local Economic Development Strategic Plan as well as investment recruitment and retention.
 More about OLED Zrenjanin (PDF, 203 Kb)

On November 27, 2006, approximately three weeks after returning from the study-tour to Chicago, organized by USAID-funded Municipal Economic Growth Activity program for the three winners of the ‘Invest in Serbia’ competition, Zrenjanin signed the agreement on building and equipping the first water treatment facility in Zrenjanin.  The agreement was signed with the US, Chicago-based company, ‘S&A Capital’, by the Mayor of Zrenjanin, Goran Knezevic, and General Manager of the water and waste water public utility company from Zrenjanin, Bratislav Tomic.
 More about Zrenjanin Agreement on Water Treatment Facility (PDF, 232 Kb)

It took four years of very intensive engagement of the Standing Conference of Towns and Municipalities, supported by USAID and other partners to result in adoption of the Law on Local Government Finances on July 14, 2006.  As a result of the new Law, predictability and objectivity of the system will be greatly improved, imbalance in per capita revenues between richer and poorer municipalities moderated, property tax is made an own source revenue and local governments have got authority to collect own revenues.  Some of the improvements in the text of the Draft Law have been made after the Draft was approved by the Government of Serbia and sent to the Parliament.  Notably, the amendment that obliges all line ministries to provide information to the Ministry of Finance and Commission for Local Government Finances on all earmarked grants that they transfer to local governments was agreed at the debate on the Draft Law between the SCTM, Ministry of Finance and the members of the National Parliament, which was facilitated by MEGA program.  This provision will contribute significantly to making the system of finance more transparent.
 More about IGF System Reform (PDF, 160 Kb)

The authors of the Draft Law on Foreign Investment, headed by Minister of International Economic Relations Milan Parivodic, and all stakeholders interested in the investment climate in Serbia participated in the round table organized by the National Alliance for Economic Development (NALED) on August 30, 2006 at the Hotel Palace.  Over 100 guests representing businesses and business associations, foreign investors, local and national government representatives, the Ministry of International Economic Relations, the Serbian Investment and Export Promotion Agency (SIEPA), the Foreign Investors Council (FIC), the World Bank and Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA), embassies, media as well as other important stakeholders, attended the roundtable.
 More about NALED Forum on FDI Law (PDF, 216 Kb)

“Vojvodina municipalities are open for investments” - this is the message sent out of this seminar.  More importantly, these municipalities are also open for learning more about techniques and tools for attracting investments: 50 participants from 29 municipalities gathered together to hear about effective municipal marketing for attracting investments and promotion at international fairs from the World Bank’s Serbia Investment Promotion Programme - SIPP/MIGA, Municipal Economic Growth Activity – MEGA/USAID, German Organization for Technical Cooperation (GTZ), Serbia Investment and Export Promotion Agency (SIEPA) and Beomedia but, also, to hear the best practices examples and find out about the assistance and support they can get from these organizations.
 More about Knowledge for VIP Investments (PDF, 193 Kb)