If You Can’t Take Care of Your Own Money, How Can You Take Care of Investors’ Money?

Siniša Mali, Mayor of Belgrade, speaks about the economy in the country’s capital

Belgrade is the capital of this country and accounts for some 40 per cent of its GDP. As such, the bulk of the reforms this government is trying to implement impact mainly on Belgrade. I would like to emphasise some of the achievements of the last 18 months: when we took office we inherited a catastrophic situation in the city’s public finances; the budget deficit exceeded 20 per cent and debt was at 1.15 billion euros. At the end of 2015 the deficit had been reduced to 10 per cent, and we plan to reduce it further, to five per cent, at the end of 2017, which will equate to a fourfold reduction in just two and a half years. This is our contribution to reforms, of course, but also a clear signal to investors – as if you can’t handle your own money in the City budget, then how can you seriously ask investors to put their money into your city?

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