Archive for category Business & Economy
Market to determine price of ‘Telecom Serbia’
Posted by admin in Business & Economy on March 23rd, 2010
Telecommunications Minister Jasna Matic says that the Government still has not debated officially over the sale of this company.
We wanted to know why the story about sale of ‘Telecom Serbia’ has become so intensive at this particular moment.
‘It is so because we now finally have conditions required for the market to start functioning in this particular sphere. Also it is my opinion that the State has been poorly managing this enterprise until so far and that is not good for our economy. Telecommunications are one of chief sources of competitiveness’, Matic says.
According to her words there are already several companies which are interested in ‘Telecom Serbia’ One of them is ‘Deutsche Telecom’, a company which is already a minor shareholder. Read the rest of this entry »
‘Fiat’ official owner of ‘Zastava’ soon
Posted by admin in Business & Economy on November 10th, 2009
The agreement is also expected to precise the number of workers that shall be undertaken by ‘Fiat Cars Serbia’ as well as dynamics of further investments projected to EUR 800 millions for the period until 2012. The production of new car model is expected to start at the beginning of 2011.
As said by Nebojsa Ciric, State secretary at the Ministry of economy it has been hinted that ‘Fiat’ shall undertake 1,000 workers of the car factory and employ another 100 invalids in protected workshops. The plan is that from the remaining 1,400 workers, about 500 of them leave the factory with severance pay. Read the rest of this entry »
“Galenika” as the only factory for sale until the end of this year
Posted by admin in Business & Economy on September 21st, 2009
Mladjan Dinkic, Economy Minister, says for “Blic” that there is no need to sell “Galenika” for a lower price.
“Since it is a strategically important company, analyses have shown that the minimal starting price for 100 percent of “Galenika” will be EUR 200 mn. Preparations are reaching the end and there is no reason why bid should not be invited until the end of this year,” says Dinkic.
The Privatization Agency has confirmed that privatization strategy of this company is close to an end.
“We hope to finish it until the end of the month and the Government will determine what part of the capital it will sell,” it was said from the Agency for “Blic”.
Apart from the existing one, the purchaser of the Serbian pharmaceutical company will also buy a new one, which building should be finished at the end of January next year. The total value of this investment is EUR 46,37 mn, while for technological and process systems is EUR 25,9 mn.
“The amount of invested money proves that the factory owns the latest equipment of the world-famous producers with which production will be carried out through the most contemporary technological procedures,” says for “Blic” Nenad Ognjenovic, general director of “Galenika”.
“Galenika” is more and more active and we are actively returning to export markets and lately we have mainly been focused on the market in Russia, where we will send the first round of medicines at the end of September,” says Ognjenovic.
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Cvetković denies VAT hike demand
Posted by admin in Business & Economy on August 26th, 2009
The two sides are negotiating a revision of the stand-by agreement approved to Serbia in March of this year.
Thus far, it has been agreed that it is necessary to accept a larger budget deficit.
Prime Minister Mirko Cvetković presented the government’s strategy to IMF officials, which calls for reforms in the public sector with the goal of decreasing public spending. The IMF believes that this is a measure that will eventually yield positive results.
Cvetković said Tuesday that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) mission had not insisted on raising the VAT, as some media in Belgrade reported, and stressed that there would be no increase in taxes for the Serbian economy.
“The policy of the government is not to raise taxes for the economy and citizens,” said Cvetković and added that at the Monday meeting, the IMF mission did not insist on VAT increase as a measure to raise the budget income.
Cvetković said that during the talks, they had also discussed the increase in the budget deficit, which is not a result of higher expenses, but rather of reduced income due to the economic crisis.
At the opening of the construction works on Kragujevac-Batočina road, Cvetković said that the conclusion of the Monday talks with the IMF mission was that expenses could be reduced through a public sector reform.
The prime minister expressed his belief that the negotiations with the IMF mission will be completed successfully by Wednesday, September 2, the last day of IMF’s planned visit in Belgrade.
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Serbia among countries with slowest Internet
Posted by admin in Business & Economy on August 26th, 2009
According to her words the priority in development of the Internet in Serbia is introduction of technological innovations, creation of unique information area and increase of accessibility to the Internet.
The final version of the strategy and action plan for development of the wide access to the Internet in Serbia should be completed until August 31 and sent to the Government for adoption.
The worst of crisis yet to come
Posted by admin in Business & Economy on August 4th, 2009
The reason for this poll was in increasingly frequent statements by some of the ministers, their secretaries and economists that the worst has gone and that recovery is to follow.
‘When I speak in the name of the company I have to say we do not see any signs indicating that the peak of the crisis is over, on the contrary. The sale has dropped. Our contractors and suppliers also say not to feel any stagnation of the crisis. We do not know when the crisis shall be over. We are making financial plans but how can we project our budget when everything depends on the Government’s move? The Government has announced increase of the VAT. How can we then plan the budget and prepare ourselves for anything? The only good thing is the credits offered under very favorable conditions. On the other side however, they speak about increase of tax on pays. The Government is permanently burdening people working legally’, Mirko Todorovic, owner of ‘Todor’ garments said.
Miroslav Miletic, General Director of ‘Bambi Banat’ concern says that in the sphere of collecting of outstanding payments from large purchases a significant progress has been made.
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Tourists giving up Turkey, ‘JAT’ loses EUR 1 million
Posted by admin in Business & Economy on June 18th, 2009
Until the end of the season ‘JAT’ should have at least 201 charter flights to Turkey, but that number shall be decreased by 63 flights because Serbian tourists gave up Turkish holiday destinations for obvious reasons. The loss by ‘JAT’ because of this dispute is estimated to about EUR 1 million. One the other hand Turkish holiday resorts shall lose now embittered Serbian tourists.
‘JAT yesterday had its charter flight to Antalia and it yesterday got permits for flights for today, Thursday and Friday. Although the domestic Directorate of civil aviation claims that it shall request from the Turkish aviation authorities permits for a longer period of time, it is most likely that the issuance of permits shall be on a short-term basis.
‘We suggested to the Turkish Directorate of civil aviation that we issue permits to their companies on a monthly basis or even for the whole season and expressed our expectation that they do the same. We have got oral promise so far and in the following days we are expecting it in writing’, Katarina Andric’ Milosavljevic, advisor for public relations at the Directorate says for ‘Blic’.
As we learn our Directorate acted as promised so the Turkish ‘Atlas Jet’ yesterday got permits for all flights until the end of the month. In spite of the agreement reached in Ankara on June 5 the situation has become complicated these days because of some unsolved relations of earlier regarding permits to the ‘Turkish Airlines’ for regular flights between Belgrade and Istanbul. Then our aviation authorities prolonged the decision and gave the permits at the last minute.
Bank of Moscow opens doors Wednesday
Posted by admin in Business & Economy on June 3rd, 2009
The Bank of Moscow is one of the three biggest and most stable banks in Russia and its main shareholder, with a 44 percent stake, is the city of Moscow, Milan Culibrk from €konomist magazine explains.
“What’s characteristic here is that thus far, it has operated literally exclusively with legal entities, with industry. It was expected that the Bank of Moscow’s arrival in Serbia would be directly linked to Gazprom’s purchase of NIS, but it’s turned out that that transaction was not conducted through the Bank of Moscow,” he notes.
“So, it will now try to carve out a place for itself on the market, working primarily with companies who trade with Russia, and thus grab as big a slice of the cake for itself as possible,” Culibrk said.
The bank began operating in Serbia last year as the first Russian bank in the region, and the first Greenfield investment in the Serbian banking sector in the last seven years.
Mobile telephone communication more expensive, but roaming cheaper
Posted by admin in Business & Economy on June 1st, 2009
Prices of services of mobile telephone operators are to be increased by 10 percent as of beginning of June since that is the new tax introduced by the authorities. Whether there shall be drop in the prices during the forthcoming holiday season is not as important as is the drop in the price of roaming. Soon there shall be a double-digit drop but not linear. The European Commission is requesting cutting of the roaming prices and our company is supporting that request’, Chel-Morten Jonsen, newly appointed ‘Telenor’ executive director and also Vice president of the Serbian council of foreign investors says for ‘Blic’.
‘Introduction of the special tax means not only that our users shall have to pay more but also huge increase of costs of business dealing by us and our competitors. The second negative effect is decreased cash availability which is at the time of the global economic crisis absolutely necessary. That shall also affect our investing in development of the net, expansion of services and business dealing’, Jonsen says.
Q: Have you finally got instruction how to calculate the new tax?
‘There is ongoing dialog with the Ministry of finance. There are many other open issues. Additional income to the budget cannot be at the expense of something that is moving economy forward. The effect must not be drop in investments especially in the field of telecommunications’.
Q: Is there understanding for your arguments in that dialog?
‘I would not talk about details without consultations with other mobile operators’.
Q: Does this mean that implementation of that tax is waiting for the outcome of that dialog?
‘No, decision by the authorities remains in force’.
Q: How does the Council of foreign investors view the short-term measures by the Serbian authorities for overcoming of the global financial shock and absence of long-term measures?
‘Generally speaking the measures are severe. The first portion of the credit taken from the IMF has arrived so there is no more reason for stress. In the long-term sense, there is need for macro-economic stability. This is something that all agree about but when going into details the differences occur. For the Council Serbia is interesting destination but we want that all do their business well, not only foreign investors but domestic as well, and all under same conditions’.
source:www.blic.rs
Enough gas for 50 years
Posted by admin in Business & Economy on May 20th, 2009
“The jobs aren’t solely linked with the construction of the pipeline, but in the possibility of gas, as a fuel of the future, being used to raise the price of land that the pipeline crosses,“ Dušan Bajatovi? told the opening of an international conference on gas application techniques in Vrnja?ka Banja.
This, he added, would enable new Greenfield investment and gas usage, not just as a fuel, but as a raw material for industrial facilities. According to Bajatovi?, with the exception of the north of the country and Belgrade, the gas situation in Serbia was unsatisfactory.
“Serbia uses a lot less gas that it should,“ he said.
“Ideally we could use seven or eight billion cubic meters a year, given the current state of industry and the heating system,“ the Srbijagas CEO stated.
Bajatovi? added that the economic crisis had meant that a lot of projects had been put on hold and that the national investment program was short of funds, which was why “we’re working with the government and Energy Ministry to find more attractive credit lines.“
“We’d like to complete the job at least in those places where the situation is urgent and where we’re late in building primary pipelines,“ he said.
source: www.b92.net
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