Jovanovic: There Is No True Innovation Policy Directed at Local Companies

The announced investment of EUR 12 billion in the next three years in various projects in Serbia will not contribute to making public investments bigger than they have been in the past years, stated the expert for the Western Balkans at the Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies, Branimir Jovanovic.

– An investment of EUR 12 billion in various projects is nothing new, because last year alone, they amounted to around EUR 5 billion, which, for a period of three years, exceeds what the president of Serbia, Aleksandar Vucic, announced several days ago – Jovanovic said for Beta.

The most important thing, Jovanovic assessed, is to realize that the weak economic growth in Serbia in the past few years is not coming from weak state investments or from weak foreign investments.

Both public and foreign investments in Serbia, according to him, amounted to around 7% of the gross domestic product (GDP) in the past few years, which is perhaps the highest amount in Europe, but the economic growth was only around 2% despite that.

The problem, he says, is that Serbia doesn’t have enough local private investments; local companies are experiencing difficulties, especially small and medium ones, and the state is doing almost nothing to help them.

– There is some kind of an industrial strategy on paper, as well as a strategy of smart specialization, but none of that is carried out. There is no true innovation policy directed at local companies – Jovanovic says.

He adds that all the measures that the authorities are talking about, including those announced by Ana Brnabic, are once again primarily meant for foreign companies.

As he estimated, a long-term, sustainable and inclusive growth cannot be realized if the country relies on foreign investments exclusively, and forgets local companies.

Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies

Branimir Jovanović

Aleksandar Vučić

investment of EUR 12 billion

public investments

foreign investments

local private investments