Bucharest: Minister Kavarić attends South East Europe 2020 Strategy First Governing Board Meeting

Bucharest, Romania (19 June 2014) – “States of our region are not supposed to compete with each other, but to join forces in European and world markets in order to strengthen their competitiveness. South East Europe 2020 (SEE 2020) Strategy is one of the key mechanisms which unifies South East European countries and is aimed at strengthening competitiveness of the entire region,” Montenego's Minister of Economy Vladimir Kavarić said at the South East Europe 2020 Strategy First Governing Board Meeting, which took place in Bucharest.

Minister Kavarić underlined that South East Europe should focus its activities in that direction, in order to reach a higher level of competitiveness at the global level. The entire region should act as a single unit, having in mind those markets are small to deal with large projects on their own, he added.

Montenegro has managed to prepare the National Action Plan (NAP) drafted by the Ministry of Economy and Regional Cooperation Council (RCC), Minister Kavarić stressed.

“The National Action Plan (NAP) is based on the measures incorporated in national development documents and sectors strategies, as well as on the obligations arising from the EU negotiation process and key measures defined within the framework of the regional action plan”, Minister Kavarić emphasised. The NAP reiterates Montenegro’s commitment to regional cooperation and initiatives in the context of EU accession process of the Western Balkans, he added.

The meeting participants commended Montenegro for the adoption of the National Action Plan and its efforts towards strengthening regional cooperation. The implementation of the NAP will be monitored and discussed in the progress reports, the European Commission representatives noted.

On the sidelines of the meeting, Minister Kavarić met with his Romanian counterpart Konstantin Nit for talks on boosting economic cooperation between the two countries, with a particular emphasis on the energy sector as a key contributor to the overall economic growth. The two officials agreed that there is a space for advancing cooperation in the fields of infrastructure and agriculture.