BELGRADE BELGRADE, March 25 (Hina) - The finance ministers of South Eastern Europe met in Belgrade on Monday to discuss, for the first time, the promotion of the region and define a common struggle against smuggling, money laundering,
and financial crime.
BELGRADE, March 25 (Hina) - The finance ministers of South Eastern
Europe met in Belgrade on Monday to discuss, for the first time, the
promotion of the region and define a common struggle against
smuggling, money laundering, and financial crime.#L#
Speaking on behalf of the meeting's initiator, the Serb Finance
Ministry, Minister Bozidar Djelic told reporters the region would
become very attractive for investors over the next three years. To
this end, the region's countries have to cooperate, harmonise
fiscal systems and cooperate in preventing smuggling, which also
calls for cooperation among customs services, he said.
Croatian Finance Minister Mato Crkvenac said the ministers, as
representatives of sovereign countries, were obliged to provide
conditions for businessmen to operate successfully. He pointed to
the importance of future agreements, the signing of agreements on
free trade and the avoidance of double taxation.
The ministers today agreed on the formation of three task forces, to
include representatives of participating countries: one for the
prevention of smuggling and money laundering, one for the
elimination of obstacles to investing and trade, and one for
economic reforms.
Attending the Belgrade meeting, besides Crkvenac and Djelic, were
Macedonian Finance Minister Nikola Gruevski, Bulgaria's Milan
Velcev, Montenegro's Miroslav Ivanisevic, the Bosnian Serb
entity's Milenko Vracar, Albania's Deputy Finance Minister Luan
Saholori, and the Romanian Embassy's commercial attach?, Stanislav
Valentin.
The next meeting will be held in Zagreb in September. In the future,
the region's finance ministers will meet twice annually.
(hina) ha