Over the course of less than three decades, the Sekulović Law Office has become one of the leading players in the field of commercial law. And in recent years it has focused on developing strategies for attracting foreign investors
According to Vlatko Sekulović, investments that are realized through financial transactions are less sensitive to restrictions on freedom of movement, while those that imply the building of new facilities are more susceptible to the negative impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.
What do your operations look like under the conditions of the global pandemic caused by the COVID-19 virus?
– The fears and anxiety of people worldwide have increased due to the pandemic, so flows of people, and thus capital, are limited by the measures taken by countries to prevent the spread of the virus. This certainly doesn’t favor new cross-border investments anywhere in the world. As the situation improves, the greater mobility of people will lead to a revival of investment. This relates in particular to those types of investments that imply the locating of production capacities in Serbia, and which thus require the personal experience of a foreign investor regarding the conditions under which he can conceive his investment.
However, regardless of the pandemic, every government can improve the general legal framework for doing business, and in that area – at least when it comes to the economy – the application of laws remains the main challenge. It is essential for the efficiency of courts to increase, especially higher ones, as well as to have uniformity of court practices, because we face a situation where two different chambers of the same appeal court have contrasting stances regarding cases that are exactly the same in terms of facts and legality. When it comes to tangible changes to the legal framework, it is essential to harmonise or replace various bylaws, e.g. regulations governing certain technical aspects that haven’t been amended since the 1970s.