USAID

Ministry of Finance and Economy; Ministry of Regional Development and Local Self Government; Ministry of Justice and State Administration; Ministry of Foreign and Domestic Trade and Telecommunications; Fiscal Responsibility Council; Serbian Securities Commission; business associations

Website: http://www.bep.rs/

The USAID Business Enabling Project is a five-year initiative launched in January 2011. The project helps the Government of Serbia (GoS) increase the competitiveness of the Serbian economy and its private sector by streamlining the business enabling environment, improving public financial management, and strengthening financial markets. Project activities are based on priorities identified by the private sector and the GoS.

The USAID Business Enabling Project is helping Serbia achieve major reforms that will:

Streamline Business Regulation and Economic Governance
Improve inspections operations and organization, streamline construction permitting, remove or reduce para-fiscal burdens on businesses, assist in implementation of the law on enforcement (of court decisions), develop a framework for public-private partnerships, reform labor laws, reduce regulatory burdens on business, reform construction permitting process.

Improve Macroeconomic Policy and Public Financial Management
Improve public financial management, improve fiscal analysis and strategy formation, provide assistance to the Fiscal Council, and improve public debt management and the conditions for government financing.

Deepen Financial Market Development
Increase small and medium enterprise (SME) access to finance by improving the regulatory environment, implement the new Capital Markets Law and develop other capital markets-related laws, develop improved regulatory framework for non-banking financial institutions, develop the legal framework for a commodity exchange.

• A Governmental Working Group was formed and a Strategy for Inspections Reform was developed.
• An inventory of para-fiscal charges was conducted with recommendations for removal or reduction of the charges.
• Support was provided the newly to formed Fiscal Council, which is effectively monitoring the budget decisions of the GoS.
• New Capital Markets Law and by-laws were adopted & implemented.
• Econometric models were developed and the analytical capacity in the Ministry of Finance’s Macro Fiscal Department was increased.
• The Public Debt Authority improved efficiency through the use of better IT tools and enhanced staff capacity.
• Assessment, recommendations, and the reform action plan for construction permitting process prepared.
• A new Strategy for Regulatory Reform was developed that will remove regulatory impediments to business growth.
• The project introduced a Standard Cost Model to measurethe cost of administrative procedures to Serbian companies and proposed ways to simplify and reduce the cost of those procedures.