AmCham Montenegro, in cooperation with its member company BDK Advokati/Attorneys at Law, organized a Round Table entitled “Residence and Employment of Foreigners in Montenegro“, today at the Hotel Podgorica. The goal of this Round Table was to present the new Law on Foreigners to AmCham members, in order to better understand its provisions, implementation, as well as its impact on the business environment.

The participants of this Round Table were representatives of the state authorities, Ms. Milanka Baković from the Ministry of Interior Affairs, Ms. Edina Dešić Perazić from the Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare, as well as Ms. Sonja Ivanović from the Employment Agency of Montenegro. More than 40 representatives from AmCham member companies participated in the discussion.

The representatives of the state authorities responded to the questions posed by AmCham members in order to clear out certain provisions of the Law on Foreigners, thus providing a better interpretation of the Law. Such a dilemma was related to the situation when a foreign company wants to employ an Executive Director. It has been stated that additional clarification of the Law should be provided in situations which are still very complicated or are not strictly defined by the Law. Hence, these situation lead to slowing down the working process in a company and hamper the overall employment process.

“Having in mind the importance of this topic for the overall economic development in Montenegro, we want to emphasize that we support the intention of this Law to give advantage to the domestic labor force. By organizing this open discussion, we would like to indicate which problems this Law causes in the business practice, in situations when domestic workforce cannot respond to the employer’s needs. We believe that Montenegro must work on improving the business environment, by simplifying the procedures and creating a stimulating business environment, in order to be competitive in the region. This can be achieved only if we prove that we are efficient and able to respond to the needs of the private sector, which is the driver of the economic progress.” , said Mr. Predrag Lešić, the President of AmCham Montenegro.