Press release from Competitiveness Council's session

Podgorica, Montenegro (19 December 2017) -- The Competitiveness Council held today its second session, chaired by the President of the Council, Prime Minister Duško Marković. The Council considered the Draft of Montenegro Development Plan for the period 2018-2021. The adoption of a new document was proposed due to the significant changes in the conditions and framework for managing development and economic policy at the national, as well as at the regional and global level compared to 2015, when the Government adopted the Development Directions of Montenegro 2015-2018.

The Development Directions of Montenegro for the period 2018-2021 define the strategic goal of development of Montenegro, which is Increasing the quality of life in the long run. In the function of achieving a strategic development goal, four priority development sectors were formally identified: (1) tourism, (2) energy, (3) agriculture and rural development, and (4) manufacturing.

The Development Directions, with concrete projects and financial structure, are the basis for programming the investments at the state level, that is, for establishing a direct link between funds and development priorities. At the same time, the Development Directions are one of the starting points for the preparation of national economic reform programmes, which are being prepared annually in accordance with the established approach in the economic dialogue of Montenegro and the European Union.

The Ministry of Finance is tasked with submitting the Draft of Montenegro Development Plan for the period 2018-2021 to the Government by the end of the year for consideration and adoption.

The Council considered the Report on the Quality of the Application of Regulatory Impact Assessment (RIA) in Montenegro for the period January 2016-November 2017.

The discussion concluded that the existing system, which was introduced in 2012, does not provide satisfactory results, and that is therefore necessary to improve quality of regulatory impact analysis. In this regard, several conclusions were made in the direction of raising the level of quality of regulatory impact analysis.

The Council adopted the Information on the implementation of recommendations from the Action Plan “Regulatory Guillotine”. According to the Information, within this regulatory reform, which started in 2009, 1.231 recommendations were implemented from the accepted 1.446 recommendations, the degree of implementation is 85.13%, and, given the constant delay and abandoning the implementation of recommendations, the percentage of implementation is unsatisfactory.

It was proposed to the Government to designate a person who will be responsible for the implementation of recommendations in each ministry.

The Council reviewed the Information “Montenegro through international economic indicators with the proposal of the Action Plan for improving the business environment”. The Information deals with researches published by international economic organisations with the aim of analysing countries from different economic aspects (competitiveness, business environment, economic freedom, quality of governance, etc.), with particular attention being paid to indicators such as: Doing Business, Economic Freedom – the Heritage Foundation, Economic Freedom – the Fraser Institute and the Global Competitiveness Index – the World Economic Forum.

The Information includes the areas in which Montenegro has made progress, but also the challenges that adversely affect the business environment, including the rule of law, suppression of corruption, protection of property rights – execution of a contract, registration of real estate, issuing building permits and fiscal freedom – payment of taxes.

The Council also discussed the Proposals for improving the draft of Economic Reform Programme for the period 2018-2020, which is currently in the consultation process with the general public.

PUBLIC RELATIONS SERVICE OF THE GOVERNMENT OF MONTENEGRO