At the Committee’s twentieth session, held on 15 December, members of the Agriculture Committee discussed the production and sale of agricultural machinery. The session was attended by representatives of agricultural equipment makers IMT and Zmaj, as well as officials from the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Management and the Ministry of Economy. The Committee resolved that IMT should be re-structured as soon as possible to improve production capability, and asked the Ministry of Agriculture to provide favourable loans for buying agricultural machinery and the Ministry of Finance to consider the possibility of reducing value added tax rates for agricultural equipment in 2005.

The session also discussed requests made by hunters’ associations Malinik Zlot, from the town of Bor, and Slovac, from Slovac, a village near the town of Lajkovac. Representatives of Srbijasume, the state-owned forest management company, took part in the discussion for this item of the agenda. The Committee recommended the Ministry to organise a public competition in 2005 with the aim of assessing the possibility of meeting the associations’ requests, in accordance with legislation. The Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Management was requested to organise inspections into forest clear-cutting in these areas, while the Ministry of the Interior was requested to examine unauthorised clear-cutting and poaching, and to report to the Committee. A report on cleared forest areas and clear-cutting plans was also asked for.

The session discussed issues relating to the appointment of heads of public veterinary centres. Representatives of the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Management, Veterinary Medicine Directorate for and the Nis-based Specialist Veterinary Institute took part in the discussion. The Committee concluded that the decision on the nomination of heads of centres should be re-examined, and that employees’ requests for the nomination of qualified experts from within the organisations should be heeded, as far as legislation permitted. The conclusions were forwarded to the Veterinary Medicine Directorate, the Ministry and the Government of the Republic of Serbia.