Raising awareness about global limitation of natural resources, along with intensive development of new technologies and escalating pollution of our planet, has led to the intensification of market competition both between global multinational competitors, and among the states. Beginning of the 21st century was distinguished by market competition between countries in respect to the creation and improvement of national brands. Their goal is to promote themselves, primarily in the international community, through national branding, tending to change and improve national brand and reputation after this manner. Consequently, in the economic and commercial sphere the greatest effects of building a national brand are expected with positive impact on increasing sales and exports, foreign direct investment, access to limited resources, the development of tourism, as well as improvement of political position and diplomatic relations. National branding, as a very important competitive tool in achieving economic goals, is based on the finding, building and presenting a unique, attractive and interesting value package. Hence, the aim of this study is to promote the importance of the national branding process and analyze the position of Serbia as a national brand worldwide. The emphasis in this paper is given to several crucial areas such as: national branding concepts, national identity as the foundation of national brand, positioning of Serbia on the world map of national brands and tools for improving national brand of Serbia.
Tax competitiveness signifies a strategy that the government uses to attract foreign investment through appropriate, privileged tax measures. It most commonly occurs between neighbouring countries, with significant tax reforms taking place in terms of the competitiveness of their tax systems. A high degree of a state's competitiveness allows for a greater inflow of foreign investments, which, to a certain extent, can significantly affect its economic growth and development. Tax competition in itself means that one jurisdiction attempts to attract foreign capital by offering favourable tax treatment to foreign investors, most often through tax relief and tax exemptions, while at the same time reducing the tax base and/or tax rate. The main goal of this paper was to determine the degree of tax competitiveness of Serbia in relation to other European countries, classified both by region and globally. Based on the goals set, the authors conducted empirical research which allowed to reach the viewpoints of foreign investors in terms of tax competitiveness, based on their opinions and future expectations. The research involved the largest foreign investors who invested capital in Serbia in the past 20 years, and who carried out their business activities in other European countries or regions. The methodology of the research was based on a quantitative approach, allowing to obtain numerical data, their mutual comparability, and to determine the connection that exists between them. The results clearly indicate that the largest number of foreign investors believe that Serbia's tax competitiveness is essentially the same compared to other European countries from the observed regions. These results can be of interest to fiscal policy makers, and it is very important that in the coming period there will be an increase in competitiveness, which can have positive effects both on the inflow of foreign investment and the economic growth and development of the country.
One of the major challenges for policymakers in Serbia is to improve the competitiveness of the Serbian economy. Universally applicable solution to this problem does not exist, but there are certain segments which can be a significant driver of improving the effectiveness and productivity of the economy by implementing diverse possibilities offered by the digital economy. A critical factor in the development of digital economy is the sector of information and communication technology (ICT), which has the potential to extremely improve the competitiveness of Serbia and start production towards modern business processes, but also contribute to a notable synergistic effect in terms of the competitiveness of micro-enterprises. Accordingly, the aim of this paper is to highlight the importance of information and communication technologies (ICT) as a factor for competitiveness and development of the digital economy, to analyze the application of ICT in the economy of Serbia, to highlight the benefits of development and acceptance of new solutions in the field of ICT, to create recommendations that would contribute to improving the business environment in the ICT field, and consequently of the digital economy as a whole. The Lisbon Strategy, as one of the most important strategic documents that provides guidelines for improving the competitiveness of the EU countries, indicates that strengthening the competitiveness of the EU is based, inter alia, on the efficient use of new information technologies and the creation of common area for innovation and the digital economy. Serbian economy, being underdeveloped and yet transitional economy, requires modern ICT solutions. Only significant investment in the ICT sector and the development of ICT can encourage creation of a strong economy based on knowledge and information technologies. With that regard, the aim of this paper based on the analysis of the degree of development of ICT in Serbia, is to create guidelines and give recommendations on how to improve the business environment and intensify the development of ICT in Serbia. The methodology used in this paper is based on the analysis of the indicator of Innovativeness and application of new technologies index by the World Economic Forum and empirical research on the degree of implementation of new technologies in enterprises Serbia. The survey was conducted in the period January-March 2017 and the survey sample consisted of 87 Serbian companies, classified as medium and large businesses. The survey results indicate a low level of information and communication development in enterprises in Serbia in the field of implementation of modern ICT, as confirmed by the evaluation of the World Economic Forum on the competitiveness of Serbia in the segment of sophistication of business processes and, consequently, innovation in business. ICT development is a necessary precondition for the economy based on the implementation of new technologies and the relatively low level of ICT development in Serbia should not be seen as a constraint, but rather as an opportunity for further improvement. In order to take advantage of the ICT potential, it is necessary to increase investment in this highly productive sector and encourage the production and sale of domestic ICT products, either through tax reliefs to companies from the ICT sector, either through various forms of subsidies when purchasing domestic ICT products. In addition, it is crucial to impose appropriate educational policies, such as to increase the enrollment quotas for students of electrical, mechanical, technological and other related orientation relevant to the development of ICT.
In the period during, and immediately after the global economic crisis, the Western Balkan countries were challenged by the problem of rising unemployment. While governments of these countries are trying to address this issue by implementing various economic policy measures, it seems that on this occasion they ignore the potential of the green economy and the opportunities for opening of green jobs. In this area, particularly interesting are job positions that could be created within the industry of electronic waste recycling in the offing. The amount of e-waste is increasing at an exponential rate in global terms, which is a natural consequence of the fact that the modern society is migrating towards the information society, which implies the growing use of information technologies (Drašković, Zubović and Domazet, 2013, pp. 106-123). The lifespan of these technologies is getting shorter, and the natural result of that process is an increase in the amount of electronic waste. Global e-waste is growing at a rate of 5% per year, making it the fastest growing waste on the planet. Each year, the amount of electronic scrap is increasing by 50 tons (Drаšković, Domazet, 2013, pp. 234-238). Every hour 4,000 tons of electronic waste is being disposed on our planet. Consequently, the economic potential of electronic waste recycling is enormous, as very valuable materials that can be re-used in the production process may be obtained by it. On the other hand, one should not ignore the environmental side of the whole process, since the electronic waste contains a large amount of hazardous substances that, if not disposed properly and recycled, may have very negative impact on the environment. It is expected that electronic waste recycling industry in the near future becomes one of the fastest growing economic activities on a world scale just as a direct consequence of the rapid development of IT industry (Statistical Office of the Republic of Serbia, "Upotreba informaciono-komunikacionih tehnologija u Srbiji u 2013. godini", Belgrade, 2014). As a natural result of this process, it is expected that electronic waste recycling industry to absorb a large amount of the workforce from the labor market. This fact represents an excellent development opportunity for the countries of the Western Balkans. The first part of this paper pinpoints the problem of unemployment and provides the associated statistics in the Western Balkans(Domazet, Filimonović 2012). The second part focuses on the process of recycling of electronic waste and its significance in the modern economy. The third part is done research potential industry to recycling electronic waste in Serbia as a possible absorber part of the unemployed in this, as well as other countries of the Western Balkans. The results are summarized in the conclusion.
This paper evaluates the effectiveness of active labour market policies on two largest vulner able groups at Serbian labour market — women and youth. By means of adapting methodology of other authors we concentrate on in depth empirical research within the target groups to determine what policies bring most gains. Moreover, by using econometric matched pair design methodology we have undertaken a microevaluation of several different ALMP used in Serbia with a goal of obtaining precise information on the difference in effects among measures. The results that we have achieved are to a certain extent surprising, showing that widely utilised matching methodology can be altered and improved. On the other hand, we found that women and youth perform better than average in effectiveness of active labour market policies.
Serbia has in 2006 adopted a Law on "Organic production and organic products". This was a first step towards improvement of this, very prosperous field of agriculture. Unfortunately, in the same year, the state has invested only 50 million dinars (600.000 €) for subvention of this production. This was mostly related to licensing of fields for organic production. Unlike that, in neighboring Croatia, which is trailing in organic production to Serbia government has adopted a regulation by which all organic manufacturers are subsidized by400€ per hectare.
Innovative capacity represents the ability of long-term production and commercialization of the flow of innovative technologies and is an essential factor influencing competitiveness in modern economies. When it comes to innovation, research and development, gross domestic product (GDP) is often used as an indicator of investment opportunities at the national level to gain insight into the country's ability to improve innovation and competitiveness. Accordingly, this paper aims to determine whether the export of high-tech products, as one of the results of innovation in the economy, measured by GDP growth, has a positive effect on overall economic growth. For the analysis process to have a comparative character, four countries were included in the empirical research: Serbia, Bulgaria, Hungary and Romania. The international Eurostat database was used as the main source of data, and the period covered by this survey is from 2008 to 2018. A simple linear regression model was applied in the analysis to determine the relationship between the share of hightech products in the country's total exports and GDP per capita. The research results in this paper show that it was not possible to confirm the positive relationship between exports of high-tech products and GDP growth in the case of Serbia, Hungary and Romania, while in the case of Bulgaria, the impact of growth in exports of high-tech products on GDP growth can be confirmed. According to the obtained results, it is most adequate that the issue of innovation, exports and economic growth is not observed exclusively through the development and application of innovations in high-tech industries. We need to look at the broader context in terms of how much innovation can improve exports and the overall business of medium and technologically inferior (less demanding) industries, what innovations these industries need, and how to develop and implement them.
Tax incentives granted to foreign investors play the leading role in the process of attracting foreign investments. The aim of this paper is to determine how individual tax exemptions affect the operations of foreign investors in Serbia. In order to determine this, we conducted a survey through which the views of foreign investors, expressed through their opinions, perceptions and expectations when it comes to their investment in Serbia, were collected. The main focus of the work is on tax incentives in certain areas, intended for the operation of foreign investors in Serbia, and depending on the amount of investment. The methodology of empirical research, based on the quantitative approach, enabled the collection of numerical data, their mutual comparison, as well as the exploration of connections between them. Based on the results obtained it is possible to conclude that tax incentives are very important to foreign investors when choosing Serbia as an investment destination. The results that have been achieved through the research may be of relevance to the fiscal policy makers in Serbia, since it is of the utmost importance that even more favorable conditions for foreign investors are ensured in the forthcoming period.
In stark contrast to certain EU member countries, Serbia faces a high youth unemployment rate of over 30% (34.9% in 2016, 32.8% in 2017 and 31% in 2018). This paper provides a logistic regression analysis of what characteristics among youth (15-30 years of age) contribute to the likelihood of their employment in Serbia. While youth is internationally defined as being between the ages of 15-24, this paper broadens it to 15-30, as it is defined in Serbia (RS) for the purposes of youth employment/unemployment and for the country?s ?National Youth Strategy from 2015 to 2025.? The study was conducted using micro data from the Labour Force Survey provided on request from the Statistical Office of the Republic of Serbia. The indicators that affect whether a young person will be employed or not are: the financial background of the participant?s household, earnings, age, gender, and total years of work experience. Theoretically, although it may be anticipated that unemployed individuals who have greater work experience find it easier to find a job, employment does seem to automatically generate longer working hours. The results of the research are both practical and scientific, as they may not only assist policy-makers in the process of writing strategies on youth employment, but also bear groundwork for further study.
Starting from the fact that clusters contribute to the competitiveness of industry sectors and the high standard of living in regions where clusters operate, the aim of this paper is to show the relationship between the stage of economic development and the state of cluster development at the level of national economies. Using the ANOVA statistical method the authors have accepted the hypothesis that the state of cluster development in national economies varies depending on the stage of economic development. In order to evaluate the state of cluster development in the country and the stage of economic development, the authors used the secondary data from the World Economic Forum (WEF), published in "The Global Competitiveness Report 2013–2014". Although the stage of economic development is influenced by many economic and political factors, the authors assume that the stage of economic development predominantly depends on the decision and willingness of political and business leaders to lead the country to higher stages of economic development and sustainable economic growth. Their decision has an impact on cluster development in the country, and therefore influences the possibility of clusters to improve economic development and national competitiveness, especially in emerging markets and developing economies.
