November 2 (SeeNews) - Serbia's infrastructure minister Zorana Mihajlovic said the government has set up a working group to carry out reforms recommended in the World Bank's report Doing Business 2018: Reforming to Create Jobs.
The government needs to do more to facilitate connection to the power grid, make the insolvency procedures more efficient, and improve further the contract enforcement legislation and the payment of taxes, Mihajlovic said in an interview for public broadcaster RTS late on Wednesday, according to a press release issued by the government.
Serbia aims to conquer a position among the top 20 countries in the Doing Business ranking compiled by the World Bank Group, Zorana Mihajlovic said late on Tuesday following the release of the annual report.
The country has climbed four positions to 43rd place in the Doing Business 2018: Reforming to Create Jobs report. In addition, Serbia was among the top 34 countries worldwide in terms of improving their business environment in three or more areas in 2016/2017.
"The fact that we have more investments today means that the business conditions are better. Serbia has attracted $2.56 billion in foreign investments, more than any other country in the region," Mihajlovic said.
Serbia is ranked 10th when it comes to dealing with construction permits in this year’s report, but underperforms in the area of Getting Electricity. It takes 125 days to connect to the electricity grid, much more than the average of 79 days across OECD high-income economies, the World Bank said.