Milocer

The traditional Miločersk development forum has ended. This year's theme was the Balkans and the EU. It is a meeting that has a tradition of 16 years. There is no gathering in the Western Balkans with a longer tradition. This year, the traditional meeting was attended by nearly 500 participants, 9 panelists and moderators took part in 63 panels, three lectures by professors from Austria, Italy and Slovenia were held.

The Prime Minister of Montenegro, Dr. Igor Lukšić, was also a guest. 5 presentations of companies and institutions were also organized. The working languages ​​were Montenegrin and English. In addition to the host, the panelists were from all the former republics of Yugoslavia - Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Macedonia, as well as from Germany, Italy, Canada,... even Japan. The gathering was organized on the principles of the most modern organization of similar gatherings in the world, which was publicly confirmed by well-known professors and business people of international reputation. This year, the risky rules of the organization were also promoted: "the panel starts and ends exactly in a second" and "the duration of the discussion is up to 7 minutes". This gave the Forum seriousness and elegance, as well as liveliness and interactivity. The forum was more or less correctly reported in the media, not only in Montenegro.

On the occasion of the meeting, the magazine "Entrepreneurial Economy" (Volume XVII), the only international economic magazine in Montenegro, published in English, and published by UDG, was published.

At the beginning, the Forum introduced a special prize - money and a plaque - for those who declare at the end of the Forum that they did not hear anything new, nor did they learn anything. Indeed, one has to be so brilliant that one does not learn anything from more than 60 panelists and lecturers and some 70 discussions... No one responded...

True, some reactions of people who did not participate in the meeting show that next year that award should be given to those who did not participate, but imagine how the Forum went. Indeed, only insolent ignoramuses and antisocial persons can disparage such gatherings... After all, we can consider these disparaging comments as a contribution of this Forum because they reveal these "geniuses", who, we hope, will finally be employed by someone, and not just hired to write commissioned articles. , primitive texts...

The forum was public and a general invitation was valid for everyone. The topics were from various fields. Experts too. This confirms the openness of the Forum to other professions and experts from other areas. The maturity of the Montenegrin School of Economics is reflected in its openness and willingness to discuss professional issues with world experts and at world meetings with both like-minded and non-like-minded people.

By inviting Professor Jože Mencinger from Ljubljana, as a leading Keynesian and promoter of the anti-liberal concept in the region (although we are friends, we have completely opposite positions), we wanted to encourage domestic protectionists to come to the Forum. There were none... Of course! Just as cowards show their courage by whining, so our protectionists try to be brave by belittling everything and everyone.

At the meeting, Montenegro's entry into the European Union was viewed in the context of solving the unemployment problem. Indeed, unemployment, especially among the 16-24-year-old generation, is becoming the biggest problem, not only in Montenegro and the region, but also in the West as a whole.

Joining the EU by itself will not solve that problem, but it is undeniable that the European market creates greater opportunities for new projects, new companies, and thus new employment. The emphasis is on the economic approach to solving the problem of unemployment, primarily through the abolition of barriers to business and the increase of economic freedom, and much less through redistribution and state protection and "smart" state projects.

Discussions about the objective function of the company are, in a way, open questions about the character of capitalism that is developing in the region. The prevailing principle is that the goal of the company is profit in itself, which develops the logic of investing profits in non-productive consumption and personal wealth. It is not the capitalism advocated by liberal thought - entrepreneurial capitalism or Weber's rational capitalism, but rather rentier and political capitalism, of the social-democratic type.

The goal should be REINVESTMENT OF PROFITS – reinvesting and expanding the production or service base. Once again, the environment for investment is reached... In fact, economic freedoms become a key lever for profit production and profit retention in Montenegro and the region... Naturally, protectionists shudder at the word freedom, because only they and the state know what each of us needs. to work. Democratization of business - as many citizen business owners as possible is more important than the often false and very expensive "democratization" of politics and political parties.

Indeed, the Forum showed that it is necessary to get rid of the discussion on prevailing and demagogic issues, to be much more alive and closer to the individual, his freedom and entrepreneurship. Thus, at the meeting there were more discussions about branding domestic tomatoes (how to make a business with them), or about genomics and bioeconomy, green economy, economics of architecture and construction and similar topics than about Keynesian macroeconomic policies or stereotypical discussions about politicized economic issues.. Indeed, when discussion takes place between people who understand the conceptual concepts they are advocating for, it is easier to come up with practical proposals.

It was especially emphasized that the EU is not a space. The EU is not a geography! The EU is a system of values, a way of thinking. Joining the EU is a moment of truth for everyone individually, for every institution and the country as a whole. No matter how many problems the EU has, the EU project has a future.

The EU is a market for our ideas, skills and abilities... However, we cannot free ourselves from the philosophy of the market... In addition, the closed, protective nation-state is melting in the EU like snow in spring. The future belongs more to the individual and his knowledge, to networked companies on a global level... I don't see that the future of political parties, closed nation states,..., bureaucracy... is crucially important.

Of course, the strengthening of these mega-processes is going through and will go through a new long-term transition - this time the path of the West. I am not sure that this transition will be easier than the transition of the East - which we are still going through.