"The Union of Employers of Serbia and Montenegro is jointly advocating for the abolition of barriers between the two national markets"

The employers' unions of Serbia and Montenegro are jointly advocating for the abolition of barriers between the two national markets and greater cooperation between the two employers' organizations and the two economies as a whole.

The Union of Employers of Serbia hosted businessmen from Montenegro, members of the Union of Employers of Montenegro, with whom they discussed the business environment and business barriers, the labor market, and the movement of people, goods and services at border crossings.

The President of the Union of Employers of Serbia, Miloš Nenezić, said that it remains for them as employers to jointly identify problems, find ways to solve them and influence the authorities to implement those solutions.

"The problems are mostly common, they relate to the migration of labor force, the flow of goods and services, costs and unorganized infrastructure both on our side and on the Montenegrin side. The biggest problem is certainly the barriers that arise in the time flow of goods between Serbia and Montenegro", said Nenezić.

At the meeting, the main problems were identified, primarily labor migration, which is very significant from the point of view of both economies, which lack a large number of workers, and emphasizing the necessity to engage them in a much faster and more functional way, then the burden of numerous barriers that exist in the circulation of goods, i.e. numerous customs regulations that require the detention of goods, additional controls on goods that sometimes have an urgency to be distributed as soon as possible and are unnecessarily detained at the border, there are also other costs that make it difficult for the economy to operate, such as the costs of payment transactions and other financial transactions.

The president of UPCG, Slobodan Mikavica, said that Serbia is the most important partner of the Montenegrin economy, as well as that the economies of both countries are burdened with many barriers, double costs, unnecessary retention and failure to provide functionality for performing activities.

"What creates barriers is the administration, certain systems, devices, which perceive these two economies as two completely different markets. We don't see it that way because we are directed to each other, we depend on each other so much, there is almost no company in Serbia that does not have a representative office in Montenegro, we are compatible in every segment of the economy, according to standards and all the ways in which the economy functions and we want this compatibility to result in better traffic, better and faster circulation of goods, services and finances", said Mikavica.

According to him, it is necessary for both economies to cooperate as best as possible, to solve the problems of the workforce and the barriers they have in the circulation of goods, as well as many things that will bring even better cooperation to the two economies, which are also connected in many other ways.

The meeting was also attended by the chargé d'affaires at the Embassy of Montenegro in Serbia, Predrag Mitrović and his associates.

In addition to members of the Presidency and the Executive Board of the Union of Serbian Employers, the meeting was attended by representatives from the Montenegrin companies CEDIS, Luka Bar, Data lab, Budvanska Riviera, Aerodromi Crne Gore, Investteam LLC, Tina Time and Volim Podgorica.