What are the current mandates of the Republican Road Directorate?
The Serbian Road Directorate is an institution formed by the Serbian government and represents one of its parts with adequate legislative measures. The issues we deal with are: development of the roads, planning, projects concerning the roads, building and exploitation of the road system. The Directorate has 860 employees the majority of whom works within the toll sector and about 200 people are working in the investment and monitoring sector. We are currently working on a new scheme of organisation, believing that it would even more improve and modernize our company with a good quality work force.
Directorate itself consists of two main sectors:
1) Building and reparation of the main roads
2) Building and reparation of the regional roads
Both of them deal with altogether 17 000km of roads in Serbia- 6000km of main and 11000km of regional roads. The whole system is approximately worth 14-17 billion $ and together with the energy system it makes one of the most precious systems in Serbia. For this reason we need to make the directorate as professional as possible in order to meet the needs of the country as well as of our citizens and bring the level of our services up to the European standards.
There are two ways of financing the work of the Directorate:
1) Through the budget, that comes from the income of trade with petroleum products
2) Direct incomes of our Directorate which is 60% of the total financing- road tolls, car registration fees and different taxes
We are trying to provide this company with the constant and permanent finance support and are on our good way of realizing that.
Apart from that we are also working on new laws concerning the roads and all the legislative forms closely related to this in order to adjust them to the World's standards and requirements.
How does Serbia's geographical position at a crossroads influence the strategic importance of the Road Directorate and the country itself?
Serbia has a really interesting geo-political position concerning the roads, being the connection between the Balkan countries. Its importance actually increased with our 'breaking through' the corridor No10. The European Community is aware of that position that Serbia as a country has, and together with us are is trying to reintegrate the Serbian infrastructure into the European system.
We have faced many problems during the last 10 years of strong sanctions and isolation in the traffic system as well, that resulted in the fact that almost none of the investment plans were carried out. The present condition of our roads requests a lot of money to be able to meet the needs of the European standards.
Transportation costs significantly influence the prices of Serbian goods, regarding that what would be the programmes you have to deal with now?
Transit transport is of a great importance for this country. We receive money from the passengers using our roads, there are numerous initiates to build different service objects along our roads and that would also employ a great number of Serbian work force. All that improves the quality of living and of services offered.
Another important connection with the transit traffic is tourism. Good quality road services will enable the tourists to visit more easily our monasteries, mountains and other tourist destinations in Yugoslavia. | In what fields do you plan to use the funds given by the European Bank and the Serbian government?
The Serbian government has set aside 6.5 million dinars (160 million Euros). We expect the direct incomes of our Directorate to be round 250 million dinars. The European Investment Bank has signed a contract with the Serbian Road Directorate for crediting in three packages.
The first one, that we have already signed, is involving 37 million euros and is to be valid from February this year.
How are you going to attract the foreign investors?
We are going to invite various foreign road building companies to participate in our tenders. In accordance with our government with its financial help and the help of credits, we decided that regarding the highway Belgrade - Novi Sad- Hungarian boarder we will not give away any concessions.
As far as the two other highway projects are concerned, towards Macedonia and Bulgaria, we do not have enough financial recourses and that can be an interesting offer for the foreign investors.
What would be your vision regarding the future of the Serbian road system inside the country and as a part of the region?
With its position Serbia has a strong potential, which we are trying to promote and integrate into the global European road system with the matching standards.
The projects we have in cooperation with Bulgaria on making the highway connection between Belgrade and them are of a great importance. Of the same importance is also the project with Hungary for building the new track on the Belgrade-Novi Sad -Budapest highway.
Could you tell us something about your personal professional experience as a General Manager especially with changing from the private to the government sector?
Personally, I am part of the new administration in this country and my main task is to use my experience in the best possible way for the benefit of the company I work for. Working for the government sector is a much more complex task. We are now trying to make modern, transparent institutions out of government companies. At the present and providing what we have inherited, our priority is reaching a healthy basis from where we could start a completely new way of working with a new, modern image.
Having many people coming from the private sector we will improve the quality of this company due to their ability to make good decisions in a very short time and being generally more dynamic.
What would be your final massage for the readers of Forbes Magazine?
Serbia might have been through very difficult times but the people still bare the same qualities and are ready now more than ever for good and professional business. If the foreign investors decide to come I am sure they will find the right partners with us.
Note: World Investment News Ltd cannot be held responsible for the content of unedited transcriptions. |
