Serbia needs new policy of industrialization

BELGRADE - Serbia needs a new policy of industrialization to boost production and employment, and the upcoming Kopaonik Business Forum could offer solutions for this challenge, said Forum Chairman Dragan Djuricin.

Ahead of the Forum, which will take place from March 3 to 5, Djuricin told Tanjug that there can be no about-turn from the state of regression in which Serbia has been for two decades and a half without agreement between politicians, the state administration and economists.

The first step toward that about-turn and along the path toward industrializing the economy has already been done with the government's austerity measures, said Djuricin, professor at Belgrade's Faculty of Economics.

Serbia cannot continue with the economic policies pursued in the last 15 years, as this path does not lead the economy to the state of sustainable employment, he said.
"This is the path that leads to increased export dependence, and raises the economy's dependence on credits," Djuricin said.

"A low inflation is useless, if growth rates are negative, and unemployment high. So, the main objective is to ensure job gains and production boost," he said.

To achieve that, authorities need to identify the key production sectors that provide a substitute for imports and determine priority measures that should lead to a production growth in these sectors, he said.

Speaking about the sectors where an industrialization could be expected, Djuricin took information and communication technologies as an example, adding that Serbia has solid resources for these industries.
"Any country that has serious plans for the future must make adjustments so that it spends as much as it produces. In the last 25 years, we have been...