The World Bank team expressed concern over the failure to adopt the Montenegrin budget and interim financing, emphasizing the expectation that the main document of the Ministry of Finance will be adopted as soon as possible, especially taking into account the importance of fulfilling obligations arising from previous loans, it was announced after today's meeting between the relevant Minister Novica Vuković and the World Bank management for Montenegro, led by Christopher Sheldon.
The meeting, according to the statement, in addition to regular joint issues and analysis of partner projects, also discussed the challenges facing the Ministry during the period of temporary funding.
"Minister Vuković said that he expects that the sustainable and developmental budget, which the institution he heads has prepared in a timely manner, will be adopted by Parliament as soon as possible. The Minister spoke about all the benefits that are integrated into the budget, and are an integral part of the Government's Fiscal Strategy. He also said that, in addition to the prerequisites for financing regular obligations, the budget is also necessary to provide additional incentives for improving the business environment, valorizing a strong investment cycle and implementing an increased capital budget, which includes 64 development projects," the statement reads.
Sheldon, they added, assessed that the previous year was very successful when it comes to partnership with Montenegro, especially taking into account the adopted five-year cooperation strategy with a wider range of programs and the progress made in the partnership projects that are being implemented, and during the meeting, the possibility of implementing the DPL 2 (Development Policy Loan) arrangement was discussed.
"World Bank representatives expressed openness to continued cooperation, as well as potential support, through new arrangements in the form of credit guarantees or mediation in possible arrangements with commercial banks, emphasizing that Montenegro now has a larger set of available financial instruments at its disposal than was the case in the previous period."
The meeting was also attended by the Acting Director of the Tax Administration, Sava Laketić, with whom the World Bank team had previously held a series of working meetings, the emphasis of which was on the analysis of the implementation of the Tax Administration Reform Project (RARP), for which it was also assessed that progress had been recorded, with the forecast that it would be completed within the scheduled deadline.
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