Belgrade, 21th, December 2016 – The Foreign Investors Council held the regular annual session of the Assembly, adopting a set of important decisions. Members voted for changes of the electoral model of FIC Board of Directors and decided for FIC not to join the Council of Mixed Chambers of the Serbian Chamber of Commerce. FIC Assembly also elected Vladislav Lalić, Regional Property & Expansion Manager at Ikea Serbia as a new Board member, thus filling the vacancy which existed in FIC Board of Directors.

Looking into 2017, FIC President Yana Mikhailova said that “FIC will continue to advocate for improvement of business environment, better implementation of laws and cutting unnecessary bureaucracy. With the new Government – FIC Task Force in place, we will be able to make stronger impact, more efficiently resolve outstanding issues and improve grounds for economic growth. At the same time, we will continue working together with the EU Commission and the Serbian Government to accelerate Serbia’s economic integration into EU and bring Serbian market closer to EU rules and practices.”

Based on Assembly’s decision, as of 2017, FIC will have a new model of election of the FIC Board of Directors which will ensure both consistency and inflow of new energy in the main management of body of the Association. In particular, FIC will have a mixed team / individual model, where 7 Board members will be elected as the team, while 4 members will be elected via individual nominations.

The Assembly re-confirmed FIC desire to actively cooperate with all relevant stakeholders via specific regulatory projects, rather than through widespread alliances, such as the Council of Mixed Chambers. “We believe in true value of synergies, which enable exchange of knowledge, build leverage, but at the same time secure independence of all parties involved. Although FIC will not join Council of Mixed Chambers, we remain open to work with all stakeholders, including Serbian Chamber of Commerce and other members of this Council, to overcome specific impediments for doing business in Serbia”, said FIC President Yana Mikhailova.

Assembly meeting was also the opportunity to track the record of past activities and adopt Annual and Financial Report for 2016. “This was a year of growth for FIC. While membership base remained stable, trend of growth continued based both on expanded operations of members and inflow of new members. FIC members today account to €28.7 billion of investments (€5.2 billion more than in 2015), 21.7% of GDP share (3.7% more than in 2013), 22% of Serbian exports, and employ 94,000 people. All this witnesses that FIC members are the key drivers of the Serbian economy”, said FIC President Yana Mikhailova.

“FIC also continued to grow in size of the activities and services it provides to the members. Apart from its most renowned White Book project and visit to Brussels where FIC had a series of successful meetings with the European Commission, FIC organized 38 meetings with Government representatives, executed more than 45 regulatory projects, interacted with more than 200 stakeholders and had 30 media activities. The newest, Digital& E-commerce Committee was formed in September, while all 9 FIC working committees saw the rise of over 30% in their activities.

About FIC: FIC continues to expand, gathering over 130 companies who have invested over EUR 28.7 billion, contributed to 21.7% of GDP, 22.2% of Serbian exports, 18% of Serbian corporate income tax state revenue, and directly employ over 94,000 people in Serbia. The association is continuously growing – in the past year investments grew by €5.2 billion, while direct GDP share increased by 3.7% in the period of last two years, based on further growth and inflow of new members. FIC main goal is to influence the improvement of business climate in Serbia by making concrete reform proposals and building a business portal for communication with the authorities in Serbia. FIC is also focusing on promoting solid business ethics and high corporate governance principles within the organization and towards local companies, the Government, and other external stakeholders. Through support and active engagement of membership, FIC has proven to be a strict guardian of the business community interests and at the same time a reliable partner to the Government of Serbia and other relevant stakeholders.