Serbia

This tenth edition of Doing Business sheds light on how easy or difficult it is for a local entrepreneur to open and run a small to medium-size business when complying... Show More + with relevant regulations. It measures and tracks changes in regulations affecting eleven areas in the life cycle of a business: starting a business, dealing with construction permits, getting electricity, registering property, getting credit, protecting investors, paying taxes, trading across borders, enforcing contracts, resolving insolvency and employing workers. Doing Business presents quantitative indicators on business regulations and the protection of property rights that can be compared across 185 economies, from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe, over time. The indicators are used to analyze economic outcomes and identify what reforms have worked, where and why. This economy profile presents the Doing Business indicators for Serbia. To allow useful comparison, it also provides data for other selected economies (comparator economies) for each indicator. The data in this report are current as of June 1, 2012 (except for the paying taxes indicators, which cover the period January - December 2011). Show Less -

In support of the multi-annual efforts of the Government of Serbia to advance financing policies and practice in the education sector, the World Bank conducted a review... Show More + of policies related to school finance along the Systems Approach for Better Education Results (SABER)-school finance framework. School finance policy goals are observed in the following areas: the basic conditions for learning, monitoring learning conditions and outcomes, overseeing service delivery, budgeting with adequate and transparent information, providing more resources to students who need them, and managing resources efficiently. The Serbia report for 2012 is one of the first national reports under the global benchmarking exercise of the World Bank, in the area of school finance, aimed at outlining policies that drive performance in a school finance system. This report presents findings on the strengths and weaknesses of the school finance system in Serbia. It discusses the need to use more efficiently the public expenditure available for education in the country, and it looks at the policy goals in financing public education more broadly. Show Less -

This technical note was motiviated by two particular issues of the Serbian labor market, namely the high levels of inactivity, and informal employment among the Serbian... Show More + working age population. What incentives have employers, the self-employed, and workers, actually to register these activities, and pay taxes and contributions on the income that is generated? The analysis examines the role of labor taxation and social benefit design, and how they relate to informal employment and inactivity. It tries to determine what disincentives for formal work, might be causing people to exit into informality, or inactivity. The note concludes with three main reform options to decrease informal employment, and to activate the inactive are proposed: to make formal work pay for low-wage earners; to genuinely means-test any entitlements to free health insurance or other municipal entitlements; and to step-up inspections and enforcement. Show Less -

Doing Business 2010 is the seventh in a series of annual reports investigating regulations that enhance business activity and those that constrain it. Doing Business... Show More + presents quantitative indicators on business regulations and the protection of property rights that can be compared across 183 economies, from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe, over time. This paper presents the summary Doing Business indicators for Serbia. The paper includes the following headings: introduction and aggregate rankings, starting a business, dealing with construction permits, employing workers, registering property, getting credit, protecting investors, paying taxes, trading across borders, enforcing contracts, closing a business, and Doing Business 2010 reform. Show Less -

There is a strong political will in the Western Balkan states to align the region's pharmaceutical legislation and practice with that of the European Union. Accordingly,... Show More + recent policy changes were aimed at harmonization of policies with other European countries. Several national drug laws were updated or completely re-written in the last several years. More specifically, provisions were made for the simplification of drug registration requirements, licensing of professionals and businesses in the sector, implementation of ethics standards, price controls and reimbursement of drugs through national health insurance systems. Countries in the region have introduced various measures for cost containment, mostly through positive lists with various co-payment levels or expenditure caps for prescribing physicians. Some institutional buyers are using pooled procurement with open tenders to ensure lower prices. Nevertheless, there are still a number of challenges such as lack of enforcement of rules and standards, limited access to drugs for low income populations, inefficiencies in resource allocation and in the distribution chain, lack of control over physicians prescribing behavior and occasional conflicts between public health and industrial policy objectives. For the foreseeable future, there will be a need for further capacity building in the pharmaceutical sector, with a focus on increased oversight and higher professional standards, more efficient use of limited public resources, equity of access and rational use of medicines. Nevertheless, drug expenditure is set to grow in this region as it did in other countries in Eastern Europe, typically at a rate of about twice GDP growth, due to inevitable factors such as innovation, aging populations, increasing incomes and better access to healthcare. Show Less -

The financial sector in the Western Balkans is bank-dominated, with banks accounting for over 90 percent of financial assets. Capital markets and the insurance sub-sector... Show More + play a lesser role. Nonetheless, total banking assets in the Western Balkans are only equivalent to those of one mid-sized European bank. The benefits of regional integration derived from economies of scale, knowledge spillovers and increased liquidity would thus be substantial. This paper reviews the process of financial sector restructuring in the countries of the Western Balkans as well as the interdependencies between financial sector reforms and deeper regional integration. It starts out with a brief introduction on the importance of financial sector reform in economic transition and a summary of the main regional integration issues that arise in the sector. The main section outlines past reform trends and future reform needs in the region. The annex contains country fact-sheets with additional information on the financial sector in each of the countries. Show Less -

The Study expresses views on the issue of prospects for the developing factoring in Serbia and in particular, a factoring company, in Serbia. The Study has three main... Show More + areas of focus. The first presents the economic environment in Serbia and the need for alternative financial support to the real economy sector. The second objective is to focus attention on the legal issues relevant for developing factoring, commercial, and financial activities as well as the organizational and regulatory aspects of new entrants in the financial and commercial markets providing such activities. The third objective focuses on accounting and tax issues. All three parts of the Study point to good prospects for the development of factoring in Serbia, provided some of the impediments inherent in the existing legal and regulatory framework are removed and the factoring concept is properly regulated. Such a view calls for an immediate and across the table approach in addressing the relevant issues, so as to arm the national economy with yet another important financial tool for achieving the necessary high level of exports and economic growth after years of decline and stagnation. To that end each of the three parts contains recommendations in respect of the major issues covered addressed to the relevant stakeholders. Show Less -

To assess the prospects for foreign direct investment (FDI) in the Western Balkan region, the World Bank Group's Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA) conducted... Show More + a competitive benchmarking study between January and May 2005. The Western Balkans benchmarking study assessed the investment prospects in the food and beverage processing sector for all five countries in the Western Balkan region; in the automotive components sector for all countries other than Albania; and, for Albania alone, in the leather and shoe sector. The motivation for selecting these sectors included their perceived potential to generate significant greenfield FDI, to promote employment, and to improve country trade balances. In addition, the automotive components sector drew special interest because of the massive relocation of vehicle assembly plants in recent years to Central European Countries - Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic, and Slovakia-in connection with their accession to the EU in May 2004. The relocation wave involving vehicle assembly plants may portend a follow-on wave of relocation by suppliers to these plants, which can benefit the Western Balkan region, particularly in light of the region's historical track record in automotive component manufacturing. The study's focus on food/beverage processing related partly to the competitive advantages that some countries in the region display in certain aspects of food and beverage production, as well as the region's abundant resource base for the sector. An analysis of each country's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT) in attracting FDI in each of the subject sectors was developed, based on the study's data collection. These SWOTs are intended to help convey a balanced perspective on the potential each sector holds for prospective investors, as derived from the experiences of existing investors. Show Less -

Massive privatizations of housing in Europe and Central Asia transition countries have significantly reduced rental tenure choice, threatening to impede residential... Show More + mobility. Policy makers are intensifying their search for adequate policy responses aimed at broadening tenure choice for more household categories, through effective rental housing alternatives in the social and private sectors. While the social alternative requires substantial and well balanced subsidies, the private alternative will not grow unless rent, management, and tax reforms are boldly implemented and housing privatization truly completed. This study reviews the post-privatization rental housing challenges confronted by six transition countries in the Europe and Central Asia region: Armenia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Russia and Serbia. The common problem for policy makers across these countries is that housing privatizations decimated the stock of social housing, while the growing market-based housing production has been almost entirely focused on homeownership. As the number of households who did not benefit from the privatization continues to grow - especially the young, the mobile and the poor - the lack of accessible and affordable formal rental housing is pushing them into informal rentals with little tenure security, discouraging higher residential mobility and thus labor market flexibility. Governments are increasingly recognizing that sustainable homeownership for all is neither financially and fiscally possible, nor desirable for all household groups and life-cycle stages. Consequently, there is a need for post-privatization housing policies to recognize and address the need for social, non-profit and market-based rental housing choice. In order to respond to this growing policy gap, the Bank has undertaken an extensive literature review. That desk study has been supplemented by limited field work. The study offers preliminary recommendations regarding the directions of policy response aimed at creating better choice of rental tenure by households who cannot attain homeownership and by those who consciously opt for this tenure form. Show Less -

This assessment involves a comprehensive review of the Macedonian environment to appraise the issues relevant to the potential establishment of future factoring companies... Show More + and corresponding recommendations. The study has been undertaken using the Terms of Reference as a guideline for activity. Emphasis has been given to Macedonia's legal, banking, tax and accounting requirements and methods, as well as its pervading economy and business culture, and the demand for factoring. Factoring is a multifaceted product for companies engaged in domestic or international trade that combines both finance and services. Factoring is the purchase and finance of accounts receivable with the services of accounts receivable administration, collection, buyer credit coverage and the corresponding bad debt coverage in the event of loss due to the buyer's financial inability to pay. It converts accounts receivable into cash, thereby, facilitating the liquidity needs of a company. While this is a general description of factoring, often times, not all of the services are offered, due to differing conditions in each country. So, it is not unusual to see different types of factoring as country infrastructure conditions vary. This assessment is divided into two primary sections - the Executive Overview and the Principal Report. The Executive Overview, which follows, is a synopsis of the entire report, but also includes an action plan. The other section, the Principal Report is concentrated on those subject matters in Macedonia that could have the most influence on the introduction of factoring: the economy and business climate, a tax report, the accounting treatment of factoring, and banking and legal structures. Decisions must be reached on the introduction of factoring and, the type of factoring to be offered. This report concludes that Macedonia is very well positioned to move ahead with factoring. There are almost no changes that need to take place, but rather modifications or clarifications are required; and awareness will come with education to some extent. Show Less -