Montenegro's Cabinet meeting

Podgorica, Montenegro (20 March 2014) – At yesterday’s session, the Government of Montenegro approved the report on the state of the Armed Forces of Montenegro in 2013, which, according to the Law on Parliamentary Oversight of the Security and Defence, will be submitted to the Assembly’s competent committee. Among other things, the report concludes the Armed Forces of Montenegro, as the guarantor of national sovereignty, has established new qualitative relations with the NATO, thus strengthening its role and responsibility in terms of stability and security of the Euro-Atlantic area. Montenegro’s Army has achieved the necessary level of operational capability to perform missions and defence tasks, and provided full support for civilian institutions in the country during natural and man-made natural disaters, and made a significant contribution to achieving national interests in the process of Euro-Atlantic integration, through active participation in international peacekeeping operations.

After successfully completing the trilateral process of reconciliation between the social partners, the Government accepted yesterday the General Collective Agreement, which signing will create conditions for the full implementation of the Law on Labour, for employees to realise their labour rights. The new collective agreement will contribute to further improvement of the business environment and creation of new jobs, which are among the priorities from the Government’s agenda.

The Government also adopted the plan of activities aimed at greater seasonal employment of local work force. The activities should result in a set of concrete measures that should lead to greater local seasonal employment hiring.

The Montenegrin Cabinet also adopted the programme for boosting regional and local competitiveness through compliance with international standards of doing business for the period 2014 - 2016. The aim of the programme is to support small and medium-sized enterprises and clusters, especially in less developed municipalities and in the north, towards raising competitiveness of their products, through compliance with international standards. This measure should contribute to the achievement of Montenegro’s strategic goals such as: increase in export, import substitution and creation of new jobs. The programme is based on the principle of reimbursement of up to 70% of eligible costs of introducing standards for small enterprises, and up to 60% for medium-sized companies, with a maximum amount of up to EUR 5 000 excluding VAT.

At yesterday’s session, the Government adopted the information on the valorisation of the tourism site of Buljarica in the municipality of Budva. Starting from the solid political commitment that Montenegro’s development potentials should be put in function of national development as quickly as possible, the government tasked the relevant institutions to develop a proposal for the best model for Buljarica’s tourism valorisation.