Belgrade Chamber of Commerce's new Internet domain is www.kombeg.org.rs. The old Web address, www.kombeg.org.yu, will be available until September 2009.

July 1, 2009

On July 1, 2009 Sweden took over the rotating six-month presidency of the European Union from the Czech Republic. During the Swedish presidency, a newly elected European Parliament will take office, while in autumn a new European Commission is to be constituted.
Priorities of Sweden presidency will be:

MEETING OF PRESIDENTS OF CEFTA CHAMBERS OF COMMERCE

June 24, 2009

The meeting of presidents of CEFTA Chambers of Commerce that was held in the Serbian Chamber of Commerce was attented by presidents and representatives of the chambers of commerce of Belgrade, Republic of Srpska, Montenegro, Croatia, Macedonia, Vojvodina and Foreign Trade Chamber of Bosnia&Herzegovina. It was concluded that the turnover and volume of trade between CEFTA countries dropped by 38-40% in the first quarter of 2009 in comparison to the same period last year.
The main topic of the meeting was consistent implementation of CEFTA Trade Agreement in the area of free trade, cooperation between chambers of commerce, mutual recognition of quality certificates (sanitary, phytosanitary, veterinary, and certificates for industrial products that are subject to national regulations).
Recently adopted Law on Protection of Domestic Production of the B&H which re-establishes the payment of customs on certain agricultural and food products imported from Serbia and Croatia has been recognized by all participants as a non-complying with CEFTA Agreement of 2006, that is, as a violation of that Agreement. The Law will substantially affect export from Serbia to B&H that accounts for 50 % of the Serbian total export of agricultural products worth USD 230 million a year. This will also result in decline of overall Serbian foreign trade and trade surplus with B&H.
In 2010, the Republic of Serbia will take over from Montenegro presidency of the CEFTA Committee. Its main activity will concern the liberalization of service rendering and public procurement, concluded the President of the Serbian Chamber of Commerce.

June 22, 2009

Belgrade Chamber of Commerce Management Board Meeting was attended by numerous business people, representatives of regional chambers of commerce and Ministry of Internal Affairs, as well as the First Deputy Prime Minister of Serbia and Minister of the Interior, Ivica Dačić.

Mr. Dačić delivered the introductory speech on „National security as important factor in creation of favorable business environment in Serbia and the region “.

June 22, 2009

At the round table with companies and bankers held on June 22nd in the Belgrade Chamber of Commerce organised by its Association of Financial Organisations, Mr. Bogdan Lissovolik, IMF Resident Representative for Serbia, remarked that Serbia, in IMF's opinion, could be closer to the realisation of the worse-case scenario, that is, decline of economy by 6% in 2009, instead of optimistic 2%. However, due to its stable banking sector, Serbia is in better position than its neighbouring countries.

Milan Janković, President of the Belgrade Chamber of Commerce, opened the meeting by expressing his hopes that in the conditions of negative impact of world economic crisis, the dialogue will help to find out the adequate solutions to slow down the further decline of Serbian economy. Petar Stefanović, President of the Board of Association of Financial Organizations, event moderator, confirmed that cooperation between economic operators and bankers is essential in order to have sustainable real sector. He also emphasized the importance of the IMF's support for improvement of Serbia's credit rating. details

June 22, 2009

Upon successful completion of the project „Business University of the New Age in Serbia-BBA“ (BUONA) under TEMPUS programme that was realised by the Belgrade Banking Academy, School of Management (SAA) of the Turin University (Italy), and Law School of the University of Seville (Spain), with support of the Institute of Economic Sciences, Belgrade Chamber of Commerce, and ICE (Italian institute for foreign trade) held the International conference on June 22nd titled:

" BUSINESS OPPORTUNITIES IN SERBIA:
EXAMPLE OF ITALIAN COMPANIES AND ROLE OF EDUCATION IN MANAGEMENT "

The conference was opened by Vice-President of the Republic of Serbia and Minister of Economy and Regional Development, M.Sc. Mladjan Dinkić. more

AGRO INFO POINTS IN FOUR BELGRADE MUNICIPALITIES – Belgrade City Assembly is to finance the project of the Belgrade Chamber of Commerce

June 18, 2009

Belgrade Chamber of Commerce applied with the project AGRO INFO POINTS to the call for proposals announced by the City Assembly, Secretariat for Economy – Agricultural Department, for financing of the projects that contribute to promotion and development of agricultural production on the teritorry of Belgrade in 2009.
The City Assembly has decided to award a grant for realisation of the above project that proposes opening of agro info points in the agricultural cooperatives in four municipalities: Grocka, Palilula, Surčin, and Barajevo. These 4 municipalities are among the top eight by the area of agricultural land in the total City area. In addition, Belgrade Chamber of Commerce will donate a computer to each of the Agro Info Points. They will provide all kinds of professional information and services that farmers need for successful production, applying for loans or subsidies, purchase of good quality material and equipment, adequate soil treatment, application of new technologies, standards and regulations.
The project will be realised during 2009 by the Chamber's Association of Agriculture and Food Industry and Belgrade Union of Cooperatives.

June 18, 200

The Free Trade Agreement between the Republic of Serbia and Republic of Belarus was signed on March 31, 2009 in Minsk. By this Agreement, duty-free products from Serbia will gain access to a market of 10 million consumers.

June 12, 2009

Under the umbrella of the project “Education!”, two elementary schools in Belgrade -“Borislav Pekić”, Bežanijska kosa and “22. oktobar”, Surčin – have computer rooms as of today!
Owing to 15 computers donated to “Borislav Pekić” by company MDS, 10 computers donated to “22. oktobar” by the Belgrade Chamber of Commerce, and free of charge broadband internet connection provided by Telekom Serbia, the students of these two schools celebrated the end of 2008/09 school year in new computer classrooms! They were introduced to communication possibilities by web conferencing – solution by Microsoft – and learned about another benefit of Internet use.
„Investment in education is key to success of every society. In a long run, it is the investment in generation of young experts who will contribute to improvement of our business environment. I believe that many companies, not only from Belgrade, will recognize the importance of this project and decide to join it“, remarked Ivana Zeljković, Secretary General of the Belgrade Chamber of Commerce.
details

June 11, 2009

According to report of the Ministry of Economy and Regional Development of the Republic of Serbia, banks approved subsidized loans of 420 Million EUR, in total, until June 9th. 390 Million EUR in foreign currency and 676 Thousand EUR in domestic currency for solvency. 2.662 loans worth 18 Million EUR were approved for purchase of domestic automobiles, 281 loans amounting to 2.3 Million EUR for purchase of tractors and 5.792 loans worth 9 Million EUR for purchase of other domestic products.
The highest amount of loans was approved by Intesa Bank – worth 146 Million EUR, Komercijalna Bank approved loans worth 67 Million EUR, Prokredit Bank - 38.5 Million EUR, Societe Generale - 29 Million EUR and Unicredit Bank - 27 Million EUR.

June 11, 2009

As stated by Governor of the National Bank of Serbia, Radovan Jelasic, at the press conference held on June 10th, in June 2009 inflation will gradually decrease in comparison to the same month last year approach the lower limit of desired 7, 9%. Significant decline of overall inflation is expected in the third quarter, mostly due to decrease of the prices of agricultural products and slowing down the growth of controlled prices. As estimated by the National Bank of Serbia, in the third quarter, prices of oil derivatives will increase by 5,4%,of housing and public utilities by 2,5%, and cigarettes by 2%.

June 10, 2009

In the context of global economic crisis that has affected Serbia as well, unless its production and export were increased, Serbia will soon face the debt crisis. The total amount of its debt is huge, while 30 million USD from privatisation and direct foreign investments has mainly been spent, as remaked at the round table Review of foreign trade and measures for export increase held in the Belgrade Chamber of Commerce. details

June 3, 2009

Presentation of Development Strategy and Policy as well as Trade Development Strategy for the Republic of Serbia and Belgrade was held in the Belgrade Chamber of Commerce on June 11, 2009.
Trade development strategy, the first that was adopted by the Government of the Republic of Serbia to this day, was presented by Prof. PhD Slobodan Milosavljević, Minister of Trade and Services in the Government of the Republic of Serbia, Prof PhD Goran Petković, State Secretary in the Ministry of Economy and Regional Development of the Republic of Serbia and Prof Phd Stipe Lovreta, Project Manager.
The presentation of the Strategy was attended by large number of companies, representatives of big trade chains – members of the Belgrade Chamber of Commerce, representatives of Belgrade Municipalities as well as representatives of the Executive Board of the Belgrade Assembly and relevant Secretariats of the City Assembly.

OVERCOMING THE EFFECTS OF THE WORLD ECONOMIC CRISIS

June 3, 2009, Center ''Sava''

In order to find proper solutions in direct conversation with economic operators and entrepreneurs, as well as to inform them about measures and plans for overcoming the effects of crisis, Belgrade Chamber of Commerce has organized, on June 3, 2009, in Center ''Sava'', a round table on:

'' INFLUENCE OF THE WORLD ECONOMIC CRISIS ON DEVELOPMENT OF ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND SMEs AND STIMULATING MEASURES FOR DEVELOPMENT OF FAVORABLE INVESTMENT CLIMATE ''

After the welcome speech, MSc Milan Janković, President of the Belgrade Chamber of Commerce, pointed out that, in the following period, consequences of the global economic crisis will mostly hit entrepreneurs and SMEs, and that solutions of the Government of the Republic of Serbia and the relevant Ministries should be pointed to the stated target group. He also said that solution for overcoming the effects of crisis lies exactly in development of entrepreneurship and SMEs. details

EBRD INVESTS 22 MILLION EUR IN "ASSECO SEE" – ADVANTAGE FOR MEMBERS OF THE GROUP IN SERBIA AS WELL

June 3, 2009

On June 3, 2009, Belgrade company "Pexim" which operates within "Asseco SEE" released the information that European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) plans to invest 22 million EUR in company "Asseco South Eastern Europe" (Asseco SEE) from Poland.
EBRD will recapitalize "Asseco" with 15 million EUR and thus become the owner of a part of shares, and at the same time give that company 7 million EUR credit with six years repayment period. EBRD Board is to approve this investment until June 30th.
"Pexim" stated that financing by EBRD will enable acquisition of IT companies in the region and creation of strong regional company, and that it is expected that "Asseco" will increase number of clients and strengthen its position as leader in the field of IT solutions and services in the region. Members of "Asseco SEE" in Serbia that will benefit from this investment are: "Antegra", "Cardinfo" and "Pexim".
"Asseco" SEE creates softwares, employs 900 people, and all companies, members of that group, are software companies or system integrators.

AWARDS “KAPETAN MIŠA ANASTASIJEVIĆ” WERE PRESENTED IN THE CITY ASSEMBLY

June 2, 2009

On June 2, 2009 awards „Kapetan Miša Anastasijević“ were presented in the City Assembly. This award is being awarded every year within project „Way to the top“, which started nine years ago. The main idea of this project is affirmation of economic creativity of Serbia. This year 20 companies and entrepreneurs were awarded.
The awards were presented by MSc Milan Janković, President of the Belgrade Chamber of Commerce, Zoran Milošević, President of the Belgrade Chamber of Commerce Assembly and Vlado Markanović Director of Media Invent. 

VISION OF THE EUROPEAN SERBIA"

May 29, 2009

"Full partnership in the EU is of uttermost interest for Serbia and all its citizens, but of the EU as well". That was pointed out at the international conference „Vision of the European Serbia“, held in Sava Centre on May 29, 2009. With support of the US Embassy in Belgrade, this conference was organized by the European Movement in Serbia. Other participants at the conference were representatives of the Serbian Government and non-governmental sector, as well as representatives of EU countries and European institutions.
Main topics of panel-discussions were current political and economic satiation in Western Balkan countries which are going through integration process: Western Balkan European perspective; economic integrations and EU enlargement, with the aim of current situation assessment.
Prime Minister Mirko Cvetković said, in his opening speech, that the main goal of Serbian Government is creation of democratic and economically prosperous European Serbia that will at the same time be a guarantee of regional stability. As he said, Serbia expects to acquire EU candidate status and to be included in white Schengen list.

CONDOLENCES TO THE VICTIMS OF EARTHQUAKE IN ITALY

April 6, 2009

President of the Belgrade Chamber of Commerce, MSc Milan Jankovic, offers condolences to Italian Government, Chamber's business partners from the affected region and to all the victims of Monday's earthquake, on behalf of Belgrade Chamber of Commerce, Chamber's members and his personal behalf:
"Desidero esprimerLe, a nome mio personale ed a nome della Camera di Commercio di Belgrado, le più sentite condoglianze per le devastazioni provocate dal terremoto che ha cosě duramente colpito l'Abruzzo causando danni ingenti con un altissimo numero di vittime.
La Camera di Commercio di Belgrado è vicina alle popolazioni dei centri colpiti, verso le quali La prego di farsi interprete dei nostri sentimenti di solidarietà, ed esprime il proprio cordoglio allo Stato italiano e alle massime Autorità del Paese".

BELGRADE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE'S PROJECT: HR IN THE FUNCTION OF BELGRADE ECONOMY DEVELOPMENT 

The aim of the Project HR IN THE FUNCTION OF BELGRADE ECONOMY DEVELOPMENT, initiated by the Belgrade Chamber of Commerce, is to identify the actual needs of the employers and arrange appropriate education programs for the employees.

BELGRADE CHAMBER OF ECONOMY ACCOUNT

When payment transactions were transferred to commercial banks, the Belgrade Chamber of Economy opened a current account with Komercijalna banka AD, Beograd. We hereby notify you that the number of the new Belgrade Chamber account is:

205 - 12225 - 79

We would like to remind you that the Belgrade Chamber of Economy, as a business association of companies, entrepreneurs and other forms of organisation operating on Belgrade territory, undertakes activities aimed at representing the interests of the business community and providing assistance to its members. We invite you to use the services we are ready to offer you and to contact us when you need to.