MBO Interview with Mr. Slobodan Radović, President of the Montenegro Business Alliance (MBA) MBO: This year the Montenegro Business Alliance celebrates the 10th year since its foundation. Could you brief us about the organization? This September, the Montenegro Business Alliance (MBA) is celebrating the 10th year of its work. MBA was founded through one of the USAID projects and implemented by the Center for International Private Enterprise (CIPE) in Washington and by the Center for Entrepreneurship and Economic Development (CEED) in Podgorica. The main reasons, I would say, for founding MBA were that the private sector was under represented in decision making processes and that a disorganized private sector had just started to develop in Montenegro. The private sector needed an organization to represent it to the government, but it also needed something to bring together individuals to create a unified voice. Based on these facts, and after series of preparatory meetings, the Montenegro Business Alliance was been founded by 10 individual companies at a meeting in Podgorica on the 24th of September 2001.
MBO: What are the main activities of the organization? Mr. Slobodan Radović, President of the Montenegro Business Alliance (MBA)
Short biography: Mr. Radovic was born in Herceg Novi, Montenegro in 1958. After completing studies he worked until 1985 in local construction company “Prvoborac” one of the most successful firms in Montenegro in that period. Since 1985 he moved into private sector, mostly tourism, and step by step developed his own company “Kruso” which currently employees 65 people. Since 2006, Mr Radovic expanded his business operations in the area of construction generating additional 70 new jobs. Mr. Radovic is President of the Montenegro Business Alliance (MBA) since it was founded in 2001, and member of the water polo selection committee. He is married and has three kids.
What are your plans for the future? MBA will continue to support its members and to advocate the improvement of the business environment. In the future, as we approach EU membership, we will face additional challenges and will need to use different strategies to fight these challenges. It is certain that MBA will continue to advocate for change in Montenegro and that all our efforts will be focused on our member’s needs and on the improvement of the overall environment in Montenegro.
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The activities of the organization derive from our mission. The mission of the Montenegro Business Alliance is to improve the quality of life for all Montenegrin citizens through economic growth and prosperity. The organization aims to work in partnership with the public and with the private sector as well as with international groups and individuals to bring stability and sustainability to the Montenegrin economy. We can distinguish between the activities that are related to lobbying for the improvement of the business environment and those that are more related to the promotion of our members, their businesses and Montenegro as a country in which to do business. There is no distinct line between these activities since all of MBA’s activities are based on the needs of our members. The long term goals of MBA are: - to help to create a healthy business environment for private business owners, who represent the main pillar of development in the Montenegrin economy; - to improve the environment for investment; - to encourage a greater level of participation from the private sector in creating a new legal framework; - to participate in the implementation of reform laws; - to be a leader in achieving a national consensus on the priorities of the future economic development of Montenegro; - to continuously expand the spectrum of services to its members; - to build private-public partnership; and - to continue to increase its membership. Our work is conducted through a Board of Directors which has 15 members and also through our MBA offices. Currently, MBA has 2 offices, one in Podgorica and one in Kotor with a total of four fulltime employees.
MBO: Who are your members? First of all, let me say that MBA has a voluntary membership structure and this keeps us motivated to work and to represent the interests of our members since. If they are not satisfied with our work, MBA will no longer be able to exist. This has always kept us alert during the last 10 years. MBA has about 500 members that come from different industries, sectors, branches and regions of Montenegro. Also, MBA has members that are not physically present in Montenegro but that do have a commercial interest in Montenegro, and are therefore willing to be present through the work of a business association. MBA is a coalition of Montenegrin companies, business associations and international companies. MBA has improved the economic condition of businessmen and women in Montenegro by creating a better business climate in which companies can grow and prosper. This is good for all Montenegrin citizens, as these MBA companies represent over 20,000 workers, and MBA members collectively create more than 40% of the Montenegrin GDP.
August 2011
MBO: Can you tell us about some of your success stories over the last decade? MBA was very active during the last decade in legal matters, and worked on more than 100 different laws, on numerous regulations, local decrees etc. Our work was primarily in the area of business legislation and concerned regulations that have a direct impact on company performance. Among some of the different things that MBA did as a pioneer in this field, one of the most important was to influence a decrease in taxes and contributions on wages in 20034. I can say that the first cuts on taxes and contributions were, in the main, due to direct pressure from MBA. Also, MBA influenced the first significant cuts in corporate tax, personal income tax and taxes at a local level. Later on, different organizations took much of the credit for work done by MBA, but what satisfies us the most is that the ideas that were put forward and implemented by MBA almost a decade ago, are now being taken up by others. That strengthens us to continue developing our activities over the next decade. An important part of our work relates to developing the conditions for building micro hydropower plants in Montenegro. Since the activities carried out by MBA have resulted in the building of one small hydropower plant, we can be satisfied that, in cooperation with the government and local municipalities, we have successfully removed existing barriers have opened up a clear path for potential investors in that field.
MBO: Do you publish your activities? Publishing is one of the keystones of our activities. From the very beginning we were aware that without publishing our work, everything would be forgotten. Since our organization is not specific to any single project or specific time frame, we have made additional efforts to create a variety of publications in which to present our work. We were also pioneers in that area. We were the first organization to publish an annual report together with a financial report, and our activities were regularly published in quarterly editions of the Business Insider. We presented our legal work in a very carefully prepared publication called the Business Agenda. MBA published its first Business Agenda in 2003 and we were happy that some parts of it were later incorporated in the government agenda. We continued to publish our agenda and thus presented our future legal aims. We also, simultaneously, highlighted problems that needed to be solved in the economy through close cooperation between the business sector and the government. We also publish an annual publication for our members that includes contact information and collates all the necessary information regarding different institutions in Montenegro. MBA is the first and only organization in Montenegro that publishes an annual directory of its members. This is called the MBA Business Directory. This year, MBA published its eighth edition of the Directory which included more than 230 members. The Directory serves as a promotional tool as some of the best Montenegrin companies are represented in it.
MBO: Is there enough cooperation between similar organizations? There is enough work for every organization present in Montenegro for sure! Cooperation from institutions that support the private sector in Montenegro exists, but this can always be improved. MBA is open to cooperation and will do whatever it can to establish partnerships to improve business conditions
in Montenegro. We also have an excellent level of cooperation with other similar organizations in the region. We are working on different issues with them but I think that the most valuable thing for our members has been the organization of business to business meetings (B2B). Since 2001, MBA has organized more than 20 of these meetings with different companies in the region and I can say that our members have been extremely satisfied with this service. MBA is also internationally recognized through the awards it has received for its work. MBA was a winner in the category entitled Market Solutions to Poverty, in a competition held by the US Atlas Foundation. The award was given for MBA’s initiative, ‘10% for Montenegro’, which aimed to reduce all taxes in Montenegro by 10%. The award was gained in an international competition with more than 200 competitors. The American Society of Association Executives (ASAE), within its program ‘Associations Make a Better World’, declared that MBA was the overall winner of the Business Agenda Award in 2004.
MBO: What is the relationship of your organization with the government? When we started our work, the government was fairly reluctant to accept that the business sector should have input in the decision making process. Consequently, it took us a long time and a lot of effort to convince the government that business participation is necessary in order to create better laws. In this way, regulations should be good as they have been practically tried and tested. Currently we are quite satisfied with the situation regarding business participation in this process. Primarily, through the work of the Council for Regulatory Reform, representatives from the private sector can put forward their problems/solutions to be addressed by different ministries. What we are not completely satisfied with is the speed of the reforms, the amount ofl bureaucracy and the priorities that have been established. We do agree that European integration is a key success factor but we do not want to forget important work that is necessary for the business environment and work regarding the removal of existing barriers. MBA will always criticize the government, but will also offer solutions to problems that are faced by the private sector as we see public private partnership as a key solution to existing problems.
Montenegro Business Alliance, 81 000 Podgorica Kralja Nikole 27a/4, Poslovni centar “Čelebić“, Sahat kula Tel/fax: 020 622 728; 622 738 E-mail: mbapg@t-com.me Montenegro Business Alliance, 85330 Kotor Stari grad 372 Tel/fax: 032 323 823; 304 208 E-mail: mbako@t-com.me
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