Address of First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Ivica Dačić at 22 Belgrade Economic Forum

Once again, it is my great honour to have the opportunity to greet you at the opening of the Belgrade Economic Forum that has, during 22 years of its existence, become an indispensable place to talk about Serbian economic and developmental future. I am glad that, at the end of this year, we will have the opportunity to hear from the most eminent experts and learn about their views on the main issues Serbia is facing, being a part of the European and global economic space, especially when it comes to future tendencies and what post Serbia should take towards such future.

A government that is open to suggestions and opinions of experts has much greater chances to make good decisions. That is why the Prime Minister and myself are here with you today, as are our colleagues who will participate in this Forum. This is the government that makes good decisions for Serbia and the Serbian citizens.

As the Minister of Foreign Affairs, I am obliged to inform you of a few most significant directions of Serbian foreign policy at this moment, since we always have to bear in mind that this segment is very important for our daily life, our economy and especially our future development. Serbia is closely connected to the world, in every way, and we must think of this as our excellent quality and value of our policy, that has the ultimate goal to protect the Serbian most important state and national interests, simultaneously supporting the constant growth of Serbian economy and living standards of our citizens.

Firmly integrated into European and global political, economic and technological trends, Serbia smartly benefits from all the positive sides of integration, though at the same time it cannot remain immune to the problems that burden the world today. Energy supply, rising food prices, inflation, lower growth than originally projected - we all face the same concerns, both in Serbia and everywhere in Europe, regardless of how developed we are.

We did not cause these problems, but who cares, they came knocking at our door and we have to tackle them. It is precisely the way we tackle these problems we did not cause that distinguishes Serbia from other countries in Europe. The same thing happened when it comes to Serbian response to the Covid-19 pandemics - it proved to be more successful than the response of many others in Europe.

At the very beginning of the crisis in Ukraine, when major market disruptions occurred, Serbia adopted a few strategic foreign policy decisions on the level of the state. These decisions are still relevant today and they have passed the test of time that showed whether they were good for our country and our people. As you know, we have reiterated our support to the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine at all the global forums of highest importance, especially in the United Nations. At the same time, considering the interests of Serbia solely, we did not impose sanctions on Russia. Those were and still are good decisions for Serbia - the best possible decisions one can make under the actual circumstances.

Those decisions have had an impact on our daily lives that reflect in the fact that not a day passed that Serbia and its people would not have a full supply, of food and energy especially. There were no queues in front of our shops and petrol stations, nor were there any shortages. Our industry, including foreign companies that have invested in Serbia, had a stable supply of gas and materials necessary for their production. Our agriculture managed to timely do all their work.

This was done with enormous effort, precise planning and allocation of resources and above all because we stick to our principles in international relations, considering the well-being of Serbia our main priority and letting the others fend for themselves.

We hope that peace will come to Ukraine as soon as possible, not only because it is difficult for us to witness the conflict between the two peoples that we are very closely related to. We want peace because Serbia does not need instability, be it in the region or in Europe.  We need a peaceful and stable environment, since only in such environment can we express our full potential and constantly raise all our economic and development parameters.

Unfortunately, it would not be serious to include in our plans the expectation that everything will return to normal state overnight and that we will come out of this crisis in one day. The experience from only past eight or ten years teaches us that the world, especially Europe, moves from one crisis into another and that these crisis come consecutively, becoming a regular state. That is how it was with migrants seven and eight years ago, with the Corona virus pandemics and that is how it is today.

The macroeconomic indicators warn us that the coming 2023 will be an even more challenging year in every sense and that the EU, which is the leading economic and political partner for all of us in the region, will face a declining economic activity. Seen through the prism of past experience, the EU turns to itself and the members in the state of crisis, not giving too much thought to the effects of such crises on the situation in our region. That is why we believe, especially in the light of the events in Ukraine, it is high time for more concrete steps towards the policy of enlargement. We need both hands of the EU outstretched to show that the European Union really wants our contribution in uniting Europe.

We have the potential to face the global crises, that much we have shown. Our economy and, above all, our public finances are stable and resilient to external shocks, which gives us room to intervene wherever necessary - for example, to help the economy, vulnerable economic branches and our people, in particular the unemployed, the retired and the young.

Prudent and responsible fiscal and economic policy that has been conducted in the past ten years enabled us to attract by far the largest foreign direct investments in the region, in the past period. We generate growth in mining, manufacturing, information and communication technologies and many other sectors.

The Serbian economy is not immune to the spreading of crisis; however, this year we managed to mitigate the economic effects of deepening geopolitical tensions as much as possible. Despite the expected decline in investment activities for this year (both globally and regionally), the inflow of foreign direct investments in Serbia since the mid-April returned to the level recorded before the outbreak of conflict in Ukraine. During the first three quarters, the level of direct investments reached 3 billion euros and the positive tendencies continued through October and November.

We do not hope for any new crisis, we need a calm and stable environment, as I have already said. But if such crisis should arise, we are prepared to face it. We have the necessary resources to respond with and primarily protect our people against any uncertainty. This is, of course, the result of our policy of being opened and principled on the international stage and also of our effort to preserve and improve relations with all those who contribute to our development. Serbia has friends and partners in all parts of the world and they respect the fact that we fend for ourselves and our interests first and at the same time demand that international rules be respected both in politics and in the economy.

Such policy has shown its strength and vitality in very difficult moments, so we decided to continue to follow it. I hope that here, at this Forum, we will hear some useful and friendly suggestions on how to be even more efficient in achieving our priorities, because we need support, especially from you, whose work and goodwill have made this Forum significant.

Thank you once again and I wish you successful work at the 22 Belgrade Economic Forum!