"Serbia not facing system collapse"

"Serbia not facing system collapse"

BELGRADE -- First Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ivica Dačić said on Monday the country was not in danger of "a system collapse."

According to him, this is true "regardless of the size of its debt" - but noted that "it definitely needed help from abroad to achieve a significant level of economic growth."

The size of the debt is not the issue, but the size of GDP, because its growth reduces the level of debt automatically, he told reporters after opening the Serbian Economic Summit.

"I do not think we are in danger of a system collapse, but the situation is such that the stabilization of the economic situation in the country is our most important task," he noted.

According to Dačić, the government's response to the crisis should not be merely a set of economic measures with short-term effects, but, as stated in the program for the government presented by the prime minister, it should involve the creation of a system and harmonization with EU legislation.

Economic growth cannot occur without foreign investments, and the strongest magnet for those investments is legal security, a system of subsidies and simplified bureaucracy, he noted.

EU membership is Serbia's strategic goal, not only for political reasons, but also so the people could live better and so European standards can be implemented within the society, he stated.

The task of Serbia's diplomacy is to present the country abroad in the best possible way and influence as much as possible those who decide on investment destinations, said Dačić, who is also the foreign minister.

"We need a diplomacy that gets results, that can get investors. We have...