American Chamber of Commerce in Montenegro (AmCham Montenegro) hosted a Business Luncheon with the Honorary Guest Speaker, H.E. Milo Djukanovic, the Prime Minister of Montenegro today at the Millennium Congress Center. During this event, it was assessed that the pace of the business environment reform must be continued, in order to attract new investors, as well as to keep the interest of the existing investors.

The Prime Minister Milo Djukanovic highlighted that improvement of the competitiveness rate represents challenge for the future growth and development of the Montenegrin economy and that of the region. He stated that we should be pleased with the interest of foreign investors in Montenegro, which confirms their trust. At the same time, he stressed that we need to further work in order to achieve the optimal diversification of the structure of foreign investments. Moreover, the Prime Minister added that Montenegro will need further investments that would encourage innovations and stimulate industry development that would lead to the growth of the export sector of Montenegro.

Djukanovic reiterated the key activities that Government of Montenegro conducted in the past year in order to improve the business environment. Djukanovic mentioned that the key activity was the introduction of incentives for investments in agriculture, tourism and energy, subsidies of € 10 000 per workplace for projects exceeding € 500 000, as well as the continuous reduction of the crisis tax in order to return it to a level of 9% in 2017. Additionally, Government continues to implement programs to support the development of small and medium-sized enterprises, particularly through activities of the Investment and Development Fund. The Prime Minister announced the reduction of fiscal charges in the future.

The Prime Minister highlighted the importance of the Montenegrin invitation for membership in NATO, particularly in terms of stability of the business environment. In the coming period it is expected that Montenegro will improve the efficiency of its administrative system,  reduce VAT in the tourism sector, as well as subsidize interest rates between 3-4% for investments in the high-end hotels construction. In relation to the AmCham Business Climate Report was published last year, the Prime Minister pointed out that the Government is successfully working on the new Draft Labor Law, which will increase the flexibility in the labor market, as well as on the predictability of the tax system and on simplifying the process of issuing building permits.

H.E. Margaret Uyehara, the U.S. Ambassador to Montenegro, stated that Montenegro and the United States have shared goals. “One of them is to strengthen the commercial partnership and economic cooperation between our two countries”, said the Ambassador Uyehara. Ambassador also highlighted the importance of the proper treatment of the existing investors, bearing in mind that companies that are here face issues ranging from lack of permits to improper execution of laws. “Therefore, I urge the government of Montenegro to help remove road blocks and red tape and to help investors move projects forward.”  stated Ambassador Uyehara.

According to Ms. Katarina Bulatović, the President of AmCham Montenegro, AmCham members believe that attracting investors to invest their capital and know-how, while in the meantime changing the rules of the game, is not a good approach. “Only through positive and successful investment examples, we can influence other investors to choose Montenegro for the realization of their projects. We consider that additional efforts should be made in securing that current investments are being realized in a more efficient way.” said Ms. Bulatović.

She stressed the AmCham’s active participation in giving recommendations for eliminating business barriers and creating more favourable conditions for doing business. “In AmCham, we strive to identify which areas or regulations represent a challenge in doing business for our members and to provide adequate solutions, in alignment with the international practice. We consider this to be a valuable contribution of AmCham and I invite the Government of Montenegro to consult business associations in the process of drafting new regulations or amending the existing policies and regulations. Therefore, our goal is to act preventively, rather than to retroactively intervene on already adopted regulations with our objections”, concluded Ms. Bulatović.

The Business Luncheon was attended by more than a 100 of AmCham members, representatives of the state authority, local municipalities, diplomatic corps, international organizations and businessmen.