Macroeconomic policies by the governments of Southeast European countries are an important basis for the development of the overall financial sector in the region and they should include incentives for the development of small and medium-sized enterprises, the Vice-Governor of the Bank of the Council of Europe, Krzystof Ners, said at the seminar.
Croatia is leading the way in the development of the financial sector, but is lagging behind some countries in the region in the development of small and medium-sized enterprises. This shows that the Croats are unenterprising or the business environment is not favourable for the development of entrepreneurship, he added.
Ners said that the Bank of the Council of Europe was currently participating in projects in Croatia worth 250 million euros and that the amount could increase two- or threefold in the coming years if there were enough projects, particularly those of local communities.
Commercial banks in the countries of the region, particularly those in foreign ownership, are contributing through competition to the economic growth of their countries and the entire region, but also to the homogenisation of the market, preparing it for integration with the European Union, the Chairman of the Board of Directors of Zagrebacka Banka, Franjo Lukovic, said.
Speaking of challenges faced by the financial sectors of the countries in the region, Lukovic cited legislative adjustments and the need to strengthen institutions, particularly the judiciary.
The Chairman of the Board of Directors of Privredna Banka Zagreb, Bozo Prka, added that it was also necessary to reform public administration, which he said had been and still was the main obstacle to economic development in all transition countries.
"Public administration should not be a centre of power, but an inexpensive and efficient service centre for taxpayers," Prka said.
Croatia has the largest financial sector of all countries in the region, which includes Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Romania, and Serbia and Montenegro, but the main problem is the marked supremacy of the banking sector over the financial sector, said the State Secretary at the Ministry of Finance, Martina Dalic.
Dalic said that banks in the region possessed about 70 per cent of the assets of the financial sector, while in Croatia this figure was as much as 90%. She added that this showed that that part of the economy in Southeast Europe was still mainly at an early stage of development.