When concluding bilateral loan and project financing agreements, care should be taken to enable, to the maximum extent, Serbian companies to perform under conditions and at prices that guarantee prime profitability, with absolute respect for all laws and regulations that guarantee budgetary revenues, as well as providing regular funding and paying for works undertaken and VAT within reasonable timeframes
In individual financial arrangements between the Republic of Serbia and foreign creditors, the main contractors, foreign companies, have created an “imbalance” between the value of domestic and foreign components of works in favour of the foreign components.
In this way, Serbian companies that carried out the domestic component of works were reduced to subcontractors providing cheap physical labour, or they “opted” to “relocate” part of the business to the “grey zone”, while foreign companies, as the main contractors, realised significantly more profits than is appropriate for the types of projects that have been implemented.
Only profitable operations for domestic companies can contribute to restoring the health of the entire construction industry, creating new jobs and gradually restoring the export activities of the construction sector.
Revenue generated by Energoprojekt Constructionlast year reached in excess of one per cent of the GDP of the Republic of Serbia, while direct payments to the budget of Serbia exceeded €25 million
Furthermore, it is particularly important for the implementation of major infrastructure projects and large investments that conditions of competition are secured whereby tenders only include companies that have an adequate operating capacity and references, and in today’s global crisis conditions it is also possible to show favouritism for domestic companies with special administrative measures and regulations – similar, to a great extent, to the “emergency economic measures” established by France.
Revenue generated by Energoprojekt last year reached in excess of one per cent of the GDP of the Republic of Serbia, while direct payments to the budget of Serbia exceeded 25 million euros.
When you add to this the salaries of employees abroad and the export of the goods and services of subcontractors from Serbia, which are engaged by companies, Energoprojekt’s contributed directly to foreign currency cash flows in Serbia in 2015 in an amount exceeding 75 million euros.
