The sitting was chaired by Committee Chairman Milorad Buha and attended by Minister of Economy and Regional Development Nebojsa Ciric and associates and representatives of the Serbian Union of Employers Boban Atanackovic and Miodrag Nikolic.

Minister Ciric stated that the measures, adopted by the Government last week, are aimed at stimulating employment and at the same time decreasing grey zone employment. The measures give the employers a two-month time period to register their employees after which the Minister announced rigorous control and fines. He says that the Government intends to use the new measures to decrease the cost to private employers so as to stimulate employment. He stressed that the budget would not experience a deficit in that regard, but will have additional income based on newly employed.

The Minister announced that a company debt reprogramming measure will be adopted, with the aim of improving liquidity as it would grant a 12 to 24-month grace period as an additional deadline for the repayment of liabilities. Ciric added that the introduction of a register of disqualified businessmen is being considered but that there are certain administrative problems for the realisation of said register. The Minister stressed that all the measures are primarily aimed at decreasing unemployment and raising the living standard and announced that the Ministry of Economy and Regional Development will continue to encourage economic development of export-oriented companies and agriculture.

The Committee members exchanged opinions on the work of the Ministry of Economy and Regional Development and asked questions of Minister Ciric.