At its sitting held on 17 February 2006, the Committee on Trade and Tourism of the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia endorsed the 2005 Report of the Ministry of Trade, Tourism and Services.

Presenting the Report, the Minister of Trade, Tourism and Services, Bojan Dimitrijevic, said that the Ministry’s key tasks in 2005 were to ensure normal functioning of the market and adequate supply and price stability, as well as to improve and strategically develop trade, tourism and services, provide conditions for a competitive economy, prevent monopolies from being formed, inspect product quality, manage supply reserves to ensure market stability, and initiate legislation in the fields of trade, tourism and customs affairs.

Mr Dimitrijevic said that last year saw the adoption of key laws regulating the fields of trade, tourism and services, while 2006 would see the adoption of legislation on trade, spa resorts, public ski resorts, supply reserves, commodity exchanges, and online trade.

According to Mr Dimitrijevic, the Ministry’s most important strategies were the 2002-2010 Trade Development Strategy and Policy, and the 2005-2010 Serbian Tourism Development Strategy. Serbia was also, in the Minister’s words, to develop its own specific branding policy.

The deputies posed many questions to the Minister and his associates, mostly relating to implementation of the Advertisement Act, hotel categorisation, hunting tourism, seizure and destruction of illegally imported cigarettes, and utilising Serbia’s natural potentials for tourism.

At today’s sitting, the deputies adopted a list of nominees for service on the Council of the Competition Protection Commission, selected from among names proposed by the Government of the Republic of Serbia, the Serbian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the Scientific Society of Economists, and the Serbian Jurists’ Association.

The sitting was chaired by the Committee’s chairman, Rajko Baralic, and attended, in addition to Mr Dimitrijevic and his associates, by officials of the Serbian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the Serbia and Montenegro Tourist Agencies’ Association (YUTA), and the Supply Reserves Directorate.