Member of the City Council in charge of economy Goran Sečujski, MSc, addressed the audience at the Lecture : “Local business climate for attracting investments” which took place at the Investment  Fair INVESTEXPO on Master Center premises of the Novi Sad Fair.

- When it comes to business, winning markets, new customers and investors, the competition exists not only between companies. Different countries are competing with one another in attracting investment by creating a favourable business environments, besides their cities and local governments. On the other hand, the competition and rivalry in a market sense does not exclude the cooperation even among direct competitors, but rather partnerships. Therefore, the aim of this lecture is the exchange of experiences, mutual cooperation and strengthening of the capacities of local governments in attracting investment in all aspects of local development – Sečujski said.

Regarding the needs of foreign investors in the investment process in local governments in Serbia and the recommendations for the improvement of the business conditions, Milana Milić, Vojvodina Investment Promotion Fund representative, addressed the audience and underlined the importance of the cooperation between local institutions and investors who choose to invest in a country, because, as she emphasized,  the realization of an investment largely depends on this.

As the best practice example, the experiences of the Czech Republic were also presented during the lecture. Dusan Kulka, Berman Group consultant, pointed out that this country has invested a lot of effort to ensure a favourable business environment in order to meet the needs of potential investors, and that it is of crucial importance, in order to succeed, that the public sector supports the development of industrial zones.

By the end of the lecture, it was concluded that good communication and cooperation at all levels have to exist, from the specialized national agencies to local structures, in order to ensure favourable business conditions which are attractive to new investors, and in order to develop the economy and create new jobs.

The lecture was organized by the Local Economic Development Office of the City of Novi Sad and supported by the USAID Sustainable Local Development Project.

Novi Sad, 29^th October 2013