President of the WB6 Chamber Investment Forum Managing Board Marko Cadez called on the governments of the region, the European Union and all organizations involved in the process of building a single regional economic area (REA) to speed up the creation of the Western Balkans common market, in order to support the business community in these difficult times and make it easier for companies to do business.
“Today more than ever, we need regional cooperation, removal of mutual barriers to business and the establishment of a regional common market, and that is why it is important that in communication and with the active participation of the business community we work faster and more efficiently together on creating measures and implementing the Multi-Annual Action Plan for the next period “, Cadez said at the online meeting dedicated to the development of the new Regional Economic Agenda for the period from 2021 to 2024, which was attended by representatives of the European Commission (DG NEAR), national coordinators of WB6 governments, WB6 Chamber Investment Forum, CEFTA Secretariat and the Regional Cooperation Council.
That this is possible, according to Cadez, has been shown in recent months “when we confirmed that we can react much more efficiently, in real time, to the needs of the business community, eliminate problems faced by businessmen, change regulations at a speed we could not even to imagine and cooperate despite all the differences. ”
“The joint regional association of chambers of commerce of the Western Balkans has already included the business community, which it represents, in the development of the new Multi-Annual Action Plan, and businessmen from the region will actively participate and help in the realization of the new regional economic agenda,” Cadez said.
The WB6 Chamber Investment Forum has prepared and submitted a proposal for concrete measures that the business community believes should be included in the new Action Plan in order to quickly remove barriers for doing business within the region, ensure free movement of people, goods, services and capital, facilitating the creation of regional value chains.
“The measures we have proposed are aimed at reducing costs and removing identified barriers to doing business as soon as possible, so that businessmen feel benefits as soon as possible which would in part mitigate the severe consequences of the health crisis on the business of individual companies and the region as a whole,” Cadez emphasized at the meeting.
The list of measures proposed by the Western Balkan business community includes, among other things, harmonization and mutual recognition of sanitary, phytosanitary and veterinary certificates, ensuring faster flow of goods across border crossings, mutual recognition of professional qualifications, qualified electronic certificates, improvement of the financial market based on EU rules and the joint promotion of the Western Balkans as a single investment destination.
