The measurability of the gray economy and the effects of measures against gray economy were the topic of the meeting of the AmCham Gray Economy Committee and representatives of the Ministry of Economy, held yesterday within the framework of the Partnership for a Better Business Environment (PBBE), organized by the American Chamber of Commerce in Montenegro. The Government of Montenegro recently adopted the Action Plan for Combating the Gray Economy, which was an additional reason to discuss this topic. The attendees agreed that the key problem in this area is the lack of an institutionalized methodology for measuring the gray economy. Representatives of the AmCham Grey Economy Committee emphasized that the recent adoption of the Fiscal Strategy 2017-2020 and the measures that it prescribes will impact the growth of the gray economy, on which Ministries were warned by members of this Committee earlier. AmCham is committed to providing knowledge and experience of its members in order to develop the business environment, and in that sense, the member companies have offered to make available their own internal analyzes that will deal with the effects of new fiscal measures. Also, it was noted that joint efforts should be made to find an adequate way of measuring the gray economy both related to individual sectors and overall economy.

In front of the Ministry of Economy, the meeting was attended by Mr. Goran Nikolić, Director of the Directorate for Industry and Entrepreneurship, who expressed his satisfaction with the cooperation with this Committee while drafting the Law on Enterprises. Most of the comments on this Draft that were given by the AmCham Gray Economy Committee were accepted, which, according to Nikolic, resulted in better text quality of this act.

Members of the AmCham Gray Economy Committee praised the engagement of the Ministry of Economy within the Partnership for a Better Business Environment. They emphasized that such cooperation should serve as an example for other ministries as well.