OECD: Serbia is the Regional Leader in the Promotion of Foreign Investments

28. 05. 2010.

Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) rated Serbia exceptionally high in the majority of domains that influence generation of positive climate for foregin direct investments, announced the Ministry of Economy and Regional Development.

The Ministry's State Secretary, Ms. Vesna Arsic, stated that Serbia rates at the highest level in several important domains, where it holds grade 5. However, there are still certain areas that should be improved.

„The improvement is needed especially in the area of Intellectual property rights, ownership, land and construction, as well as administrative procedures," Ms. Arsic explained during the presentation of Investment Reform Index for South East Europe.

In the analysys conducted by the OECD's Investment Committee, entitled Investment Reform Index 2010, which was the first one since 2006, Ms. Arsic pointed out:  „Evidently, Serbia demonstrated significant improvement in many sectors". One of the highest rated positions was promotion of foreign investment along with availability of financial support for enterprises.   

The analysys was conducted for the CEFTA countries, Romania and Bulgaria, where more than 100 indicators pertaining to „investment climate, investment promotion, institutions dealing with the obstacles that investors encounter, human resources suficing the needs of the foreign investors, birokratic procedures, the level of infrastructure, quality of the regulations, work of the institutions and protection of ownership rights."

OECD considers Serbia Investment and Export Promtion Agency (SIEPA) a regional leader in the domain of servicing and supporting foreign investors. SIEPA was rated the highest, with a grade 5, concluded Ms. Arsic.