Press release from 144th Cabinet session

Podgorica, Montenegro (21 November 2019) -- At its 144th session, chaired by Prime Minister Duško Marković, the Montenegrin Cabinet passed the Draft Law on Alternative Dispute Resolution. By the proposed law, our country as the first country in the region, provides citizens and economy with a significantly quicker and cheaper access to justice, through additional stimulation and the improvement of the system of extra – judicial dispute resolution. In order to comply with this law, the Government also passed the Draft Law amending the Family Law and the Draft Law amending the Law on Civil Procedure.

 
The Cabinet adopted the Draft Law on Volunteering with the Report from the Public Hearing, which defines the meaning of the volunteering as an institute that regulates more precisely the rights and obligations of volunteers, organisers and users of volunteering, foresees which person cannot be volunteer, determines more precisely in which case the volunteer contract can be concluded and a volunteer certificate is regulated by the volunteer organiser, as well as the costs of volunteering.

In order to fulfil the obligation prescribed by the Law on Public Sector Management and Internal Control, to compliance with the Regulation on the Public Sector Organisation and Rationalisation in the establishment of special organisational audit units for public sector entities at central and local levels, the Government adopted the Regulation on the establishment of internal audit in the public sector. The Regulation sets out the methods and criteria for establishing internal audit in the public sector.

 
The Cabinet adopted the Decision on the Borrowing of Montenegro for 2020, which defines the loan arrangements to be concluded in accordance with the Budget Law for 2020, the amount of missing funds for financing the budget in the next year and the possibility of borrowing for the need of refinancing debt and reserves, for the purpose of maintaining current liquidity, regardless of the limit of the annual increase in debt and for refinancing and reprogramming short term borrowings and securities.

The Cabinet adopted the Information on the Implementation of the regulation on the allocations of funds for stimulating direct investment and improving the competitiveness of the economy, also adopted the Decision on the allocation of funds for stimulating direct investment and adopted the text of the Agreement.

The Cabinet became acquainted with the Information related to the issuance of a provisional measure on the proposal of the proposer of the Pljevlja - based security company "Vektra – Jakić", against the opponent of the security the State of Montenegro, prepared by the Protector of Property and Legal Interest of Montenegro. The Forest Administration is in charge of initiating the arbitration procedure and the Protector of Property and Legal Interest of Montenegro to initiate the procedure for collection arrears on a claim for fulfilment of the Agreement with a request for issuance of a provisional measure in order to prevent irreparable damage from occurring.

The Cabinet adopted the Information on the need for Montenegro’s accession to the BEPS Inclusive Framework. In order to reduce the utilisation of the so called "tax heavens", the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in cooperation with the G20 leaders, has prepared Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) Project, which contains a package of measures that would comprehensively oppose the transfer of profits to low – income countries or countries with the zero tax rates, where there is little or no economic activity, resulting in lower tax collection. The BEPS is a body that provides technical support to countries that have committed themselves to implementing the measures foreseen in the Action Plan, as part of aligning national tax legislation with the acquis and implementing minimum of the BEPS standards. By joining this framework, Montenegro will use assistance to adequately incorporate international standards into its tax legislation in order to implement measures of the BEPS.

 The Cabinet adopted the Information on continuation of cooperation with the Housing Worker's Cooperative "Solidarno" and accepted the Agreement on providing funds for addressing the housing needs of education employees. As it pointed out in the discussion, the Government and the Ministry of Education allocated funds in the amount of EUR 6, 321, 183 since the establishment of the Cooperative "Solidarno" for the purpose of implementing activities aimed at improving the living conditions of employees in education. Bearing in mind that the Agreement on provision of funds for addressing the housing of employees in education, which was signed in 2017, has expired, the Ministry of Education and the Union of Education have initiated the signing of a new Agreement for the period of the next three years, which implies an increase in the budget allocation for 2020, 2021 and 2022 from the previous EUR 600, 000 to EUR 700, 000. On this occasion, the Government tasked the Ministries of Education and Finance to provide the Housing Cooperative of Educational Workers with an amount of EUR 450, 000 and EUR 250, 000 annually in the next three years for the needs of the implementation of the Agreement.

The Cabinet also adopted the Report on the Development of the Electronic Communication Market. While the Report was presenting, it was emphasised that the multi - year trend of major investments in the electronic communications sector confirms the fact that there is a stable and predictable legal and regulatory framework, which created equal conditions for all market participants.

During 2018, operators have invested EUR 91million in development of the Electronic Communication networks and services, which has contributed to a further increase in the availability of modern high- quality electronic communication services throughout the territory of Montenegro. Assessment of investment in the electronic communication sector amounts to EUR 55 million. In the past ten years, electronic communication operators in Montenegro have invested more than EUR 500 million. It is noticeable that in the last three years, investment activities have significantly intensified and during this period about EUR 260 million have been invested in the network and services.

The telecommunication sector has been recognised in the White Paper of the Foreign Investors' Council of Montenegro for already two years is recognised as the most favourable in terms of simplicity and efficiency of doing business in the country. In the previous two and a half years broadband penetration has increased from 53 % to 83 %, positioning Montenegro in the top of the Western Balkans region and above the EU average by this parameter. More than a half of households, 56 % are actively using the networks of the new generations, which is almost identical to the situation in the EU from the end of the last year, while in Montenegro in 2016 this percentage was only 3.6 %. Great progress from 26 % to 76% was also made in the availability of the next generation networks. Coverage of the 4G networks is also higher than the spectrum auction from 2016 required and exceeds 97 % of the composite coverage of the populated area at the national level, which is at the top of the region and at the EU level. It was stated that the only indicator showing a lagging behind the European average is a market share occupied by ports with speeds exceeding 100 Mbps.

PUBLIC RELATIONS SERVICE OF THE GOVERNMENT OF MONTENEGRO