The quality of business conditions remained the same in the previous two years, considere half of AmCham members, and the quality of consultations and transparency of decision-making should be improved by further involvement of the business community in working groups for the development of new and/or amendments to existing laws and regulations, is one of the findings from the Eighth AmCham Business Climate Report for the period 2023-2024, which was presented at the traditional event Openly with the Prime Minister.

On a scale of 1 to 10, the general state of the business climate in Montenegro was given the rating of 5.91, which is an improvement compared to the previous report. If we look at the trend over the last ten years with regard to this specific parameter, the fact that there is no significant progress in terms of quality of the business climate, whis is in contrast to the potential for development of our country.

-The findings and recommendations represent a roadmap for decision-makers towards a more stable, efficient and attractive business environment. What makes them even more important is the fact that we have been communicating most of them in an almost unchanged form for a full decade. This is a clear signal that we all have a lot of work to do and that the business community wants more concrete results from decision-makers, said Sanja Ćalasan, President of the AmCham Board of Governors, in her opening remarks.

Despite the slight improvement in the previously presented general rating, 50% of members believe that there have been no changes in the quality of the business climate, while 28% assess that it has worsened, with 20% that recognize an improvement.

The Prime Minister of Montenegro stated that the AmCham Report is an important document for the overall assessment of the business environment in Montenegro, adding that the Government is aware of the challenges in this field. On the other hand, they are pleased that certain progress has been noted, such as improving tax policy and the efficiency of the Tax Administration, as well as supression the grey economy.

-The core of all economic policies is the transfer of the grey economy to legal paths, and we have achieved this to a large extent through the implementation of the Europe Now 1 and Europe Now 2 programs. The grey economy of the labor market has been drastically reduced, as evidenced by the huge increase in the number of formally employed people – 74,000 in the period 2021 – 2024, as well as the budget increase revenues by 50% in the period 2021-2023.

We have adopted the Program for Suppressing the Grey Economy for the period 2024-2026, and we will also form the Tax Police, which will be important in dealing with this phenomenon, which leads to unfair competition for business representatives who operate following the rules, said the Prime Minister, Milojko Spaić, in a conversation with the AmCham Executive Director, Marko Miročević.

The U.S. Ambassador to Montenegro, H.E. Judy Rising Reinke, praised the AmCham for producing the Report. The Ambassador said that American investors have never been more interested in opportunities in Montenegro, from infrastructure development and energy projects to tourism, IT, and healthcare. These companies are eager to work with the Government and the business community to provide their most advanced solutions.

-As our administration intends to do in the United States, I urge you to work with these companies and other AmCham members to make Montenegro safer, stronger and more prosperous, concluded the Ambassador.

The AmCham members recognize the dominant risks in inflation and the decline of the economy. This is hardly a surprise in the context of the already mentioned import dependence and the absence of monetary policy instruments, as well as the economy that is overly dependent on tourism and consumption.

However, companies also pointed out the most attractive elements of business in Montenegro, which are: NATO membership and the intensive path towards EU membership, the use of the euro as the official currency, a stimulating tax system for investments, an excellent geographical location and wealth of natural resources, the potential for the development of renewable energy sources, and the convenience of being a test market for numerous innovative products and services.

– Let’s expand the list of attractive elements of business in Montenegro to make our business environment significantly better and more attractive. We believe that only through significant progress in the rule of law and legal security field, improving the efficiency of public administration, decisively combat of the grey economy, and comprehensive digital transformation of the economy and society, we can make the desired breakthrough, AmCham pointed out.

The Business Climate Report traditionally encompasses areas identified as priorities for rating the business climate quality: rule of law, human resources, digital transformation, health, taxes, construction and real estate, and tourism and hospitality industry. Starting with the present report, we have also paid special attention to ESG, given that our Environmental Protection Committee has evolved into an ESG Committee, which, in addition to environmental protection, also covers the areas of socially responsible business and governance quality.

The AmCham represents the leading international collective voice of the business community in Montenegro.Accredited by the US Chamber of Commerce from Washington it is a highly reputable member of the AmChams in Europe network. Together, we represent more than 17,000 US and European companies operating in Europe, while traditionally connecting all of them with key stakeholders in the US, which results in over a trillion in investments on both sides of the Atlantic.