Covic: Bureaucracy deters investors

Published on December 30, 2013 1:39 pm

Member of the Interim Council of Belgrade Nebojsa Covic pointed to bureaucracy as the greatest obstacle to drawing foreign investors to Belgrade.

“The procedure for issuing building permits must not last two to three years. No investor is that patient. If we fail to continue building and developing Belgrade, the city will stop,” Covic said in an interview to Belgrade daily Politika.

“The bureaucratic nibbling at time provides an ideal niche for corruption,” he added.

Covic, who was at the helm of Belgrade 17 years ago, says that he does not know if he will run for mayor, or be politically active again.

He stressed that he feels close to the Serbian Progressive Party’s policy in the capital, as it returns to the model he had set as the mayor of Belgrade from 1992 to 1997.

“Back then, my proposal was to decentralize Belgrade, enact a law on capital city, introduce communal police, and to strategically establish Belgrade as the engine of development of the entire country,” added Covic.

Source SerbGov

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