Montenegro's Cabinet session

Podgorica, Montenegro (3 April 2015) – At yeasterday's session, Montenegro’s Cabinet adopted the macroeconomic and fiscal policy guidelines for the period 2015-2018. Faster economic growth and increased competitiveness of the economy, as conditions for improving quality of life of all citizens, remain priority objectives of the economic policy in this period. According to current estimates, the real rate of GDP growth in 2014 should reach 2%, while the average growth by 2018 is estimated at the level of 3.6%.

At the request of the Prime Minister, the competent departments are tasked, until the verification of the minutes at the next session, to rearrange contents of the documents in order to indentify the issue of insufficient institutional functioning and responsibilities for the implementation of national development goals. In addition to external influence of the European crisis and recession in the region, the Prime Minister pointed out those administrative inefficiencies is a key cause of slower economic growth and delays in the implementation of priority projects. He insisted the final version of the document to define precise guidelines for adequate government’s respond in terms of the continuation of reforms in the public sector, stressing it is impermissible to tolerate irresponsibility and lack of professionalism within the authorities at the state and local levels. He proposed that concrete conclusions addressing issues of unjustifiable bad credit activities of banks and non-compliance of the system of higher education to the labour market need to be proposed, as they represent obstacles to faster economic development.

Furthermore, the Prime Minister underlined a worrying trend of faster public debt growth compared to the GDP growth and pointed to the government's responsibility to promptly prepare a draft rehabilitation plan, if necessary, by activating additional measures in order to reduce public spending to a sustainable level in all consumer units.

The government adopted the action plan for the implementation of the Strategy for Development of Social and Child Welfare in 2015 - 2016. The plan includes measures and activities to improve social and child protection, identification of their needs and strategical and harmonised planning of services at various levels, development of services that support life in the community, as well as the introduction of quality systems in social and child protection.

The Cabinet's session also adopted the Plan for the preparation of the summer tourist season in 2015. The objective of the plan is, in cooperation with state and local government’s institutions and tourism entrepreneurs, to provide necessary prerequisites and achieve better effects, and minimise possible shortcomings of the previous season. Specific activities are primarily related to boosting road infrastructure and availability, diversified tourism product, as well as to promotional activities of national and local tourist organisations.

Among other things, the Cabinet gave approval to the recapitalisation of the “Hemomont'' in order to realise a project that will allow annual export worth EUR 17 million and create 50 jobs in Podgorica.