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Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić is not satisfied with the work of some ministers when it comes to committing to the growth of gross domestic product (GDP). He said he would ask Prime Minister Ana Brnabic to signal her dissatisfaction.
“They didn’t know how to spend their money in January, and they were looking for it in the budget just a month and a half ago,” Vučić told RTS.
He would not say which ministers they were, adding that it was the prime minister’s job.
– I’ll tell you what I think. You cannot hold meetings for GDP growth without only two or three ministers coming, which means that others do not understand how important growth is to us – said Vučić.
He emphasized that we must achieve growth, because “we cannot invest two billion if we do not have four or five percent GDP growth this year,” and that we cannot allow our public debt to grow.
– I’m a bit angry about that and I think you will understand this message. I do not do it because I want to criticize someone, but because I know how important it is for our country. To be able to purchase all medicines and vaccines, build hospitals, increase salaries and pensions – concluded Vučić.
“Politika” from Prime Minister Ana Brnabić’s cabinet and the Finance Ministry received no answers to questions about how money was withdrawn from the budget in January and which ministries spent less money than planned.
If you know that the fiscal strategy predicts that achieving 6 percent growth in 2021 is based primarily on high investment growth, you can guess when all eyes are on. Tomislav Momirović, Minister of Construction, Transport and Infrastructure, and Andjelka Atanasković, Minister of the Economy, are responsible for public, private and foreign investments, which should increase by a total of around 13% this year.
After the Capital Investment Commission meeting, Sinisa Mali, the Finance Minister, clearly said that the priority is Serbia’s economic growth, so the focus is on public investments, which are the ones that contribute the most to the GDP growth. product. He recalled that 330 billion dinars of the budget for 2021, that is, 5.5 percent of GDP, are planned for capital investments, and concluded that the inviolable objective is the growth of the standard of living and the growth of the economy. Serbia by six percent by the end of the year.
The Minister said that the most important thing is to respect the dynamics of the works and the agreed deadlines, and warned that it is necessary to take better care of the management of the projects.
The current budget allocates 72.3 billion dinars more for capital projects relative to the 2020 budget, which is a 36 percent increase. Most of the projects are related to traffic infrastructure. The capital expenditures of the Ministry of Construction, Transport and Infrastructure, which finances most of the construction of roads, railways and other transport infrastructure, registered strong growth, of around 80 percent compared to 2020 (from 71 to 128 billion dinars). These allocations are backed by three times higher expenditures for land expropriation (17.5 billion versus about six billion dinars in 2020).
Expropriation is a bottleneck in public investment because in previous years only half of the money allocated for this purpose used to be withdrawn from the budget.
Last month, after a meeting with ministers and directors of public companies, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said that there was a serious problem with the expropriation of land on the Stara Pazova-Novi Sad line, near Cacak, and that no He was satisfied with The plan.
Most of the money goes to the construction of the Belgrade-Budapest railway, and there is also the continuation of the construction of the Moravian Corridor, the Preljina-Pozega highway, the Iverak-Lajkovac highway, the Ruma-Sabac-Loznica highway, the highway Sremska Raca- Kumin Road. The Governing Council of Serbia for the coordination of activities and measures for the growth of the gross domestic product evaluated that it is necessary to start the construction of the Frushkogorski corridor, sections of the Nis-Merdare highway, New Belgrade-Surcin, as well as the interconnection of Serbian gas -Bulgaria in the first quarter of this year.
The priority is also the construction of railway infrastructure, and there are also projects in the field of environmental protection, mainly the construction of factories for the treatment of wastewater.
The Ministry of Construction, Transport and Infrastructure told “Politika” that, despite the working conditions during the Kovida 19 pandemic, all the infrastructure projects for which they are responsible are being executed according to the established dynamics and, consequently, that dynamic follows financial realization. .
At the beginning of November, when the mandate of Minister Momirović began, less than 70 percent of the construction works were carried out, and at the end of December, 99 percent, they say in this ministry. They did not answer us how much money they took out of the budget in January, but they told us that the minister did not attend the meeting related to GDP growth, but rather delegated and sent a secretary of state.
The reason was the urgent meetings on the project of the sewage treatment plant and the meeting on the construction of the road from Požega to Boljar.
Due to capital investments, the budget of the Ministry of Environmental Protection has been increased. About 8.3 billion dinars were approved, representing an increase of about 2.5 billion dinars compared to the November rebalancing. Investments in the construction of sewage treatment plants and sewerage networks increased by about 1 billion dinars.
The Fiscal Council affirms that public investments are under the direct control of the government, that their high growth is economically justified and there are enough projects started and planned for that, so that nothing is debatable.
According to the assessment of this independent body, a high growth of investments in public and state companies is currently not possible, because these companies are burdened with numerous commercial problems. Strong growth in foreign direct investment in 2021 is unlikely, as little is invested in times of crisis. Investment from the national private sector has never been large, so it is also unlikely that anything will change in the coming years without a change in government policies.
Increasing these investments is the responsibility of the Ministry of Economy, but we did not receive a response from them about how much money they withdrew in January, what they are doing to increase their participation in GDP and whether the Minister attended a government meeting. Council to coordinate activities and measures.
Agriculture had a high share of around 7.5 percent of GDP last year. This year, direct incentives to farmers are lower by almost 6 billion dinars, after extremely high payments in 2020 due to the unexpectedly good agricultural season.
The capital investments of the Ministry of Agriculture, such as the construction of the “Arilje” dam in Rzava and the sewage treatment system in Brus and Blace, increased by 700 million dinars, so, hypothetically, criticism could also address them.
The Ministry of Mines and Energy has put in place a procedure to amend the Mining and Geological Research Law in order to attract more investors, increase mineral income, provide greater protection to human health and the environment, but also increase the participation of mining in the country’s GDP in the coming years, from 1.9 to 3.5 percent.
Mihajlovic: The comments do not apply to me.
Zorana Mihajlovic, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Mines and Energy, does not believe that the Serbian president’s comment refers to the ministry she heads.
– I believe and am sure that all ministers give their best, because Serbia is without a doubt among the best in Europe in terms of results. The budget of the Ministry of Mining is spent according to the planned dynamics. In December, the ministry’s budget realization was 96 percent, and we’ll know the exact percentage for January when the month ends. In addition to the projects in which it is an investor, the Ministry will insist that the department’s public companies implement more efficiently the projects for which they are responsible, because those projects produce the greatest financial effect. I believe that many are bothered by the changes that the ministry is implementing, and that is why the attacks in certain media do not surprise me, and I think there will be more. But, it has happened before, so regardless of that, we have completed Corridor 10 and the “Milos Veliki” highway and rebuilt more than 550 kilometers of railway in Serbia, he says.
According to the minister, they will work in the same way in the mining and energy sectors, which have been “sleeping” for a long time, and can contribute much more to the Gross Domestic Product, the budget and the development of Serbia like everything else. Through the new laws they are preparing, they want to increase the share of mining and energy in GDP, which currently stands at around six percent, including the processing of petroleum products. He believes it may increase mining’s share of GDP, which is now around 1.9 percent to 3.5 to four percent in the next three years.
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