ࡱ> 241 @ bjbjPP " ::2222222F F 5 7 7 7 7 7 7 $l R[ 2c c c [ 22p  c :225 c 5 22   " 5 0 > 4> FF2222>2 8H [ [ FFd FFThe 7th ϲʹ Ministerial Conference Statement by Mrs. Vesna Arsic, State Secretary in the Ministry of Economy and Regional Development of the Republic of Serbia Mr. Chairman, Your Excellencies, distinguished delegates, On behalf of the Serbian Government, I would like to sincerely thank the Swiss Government, you and the ϲʹ Secretariat for the excellent organization of this very important event. Before the world economic crisis, SEE countries, and Serbia as well, recorded very high real GDP growth rates that exceeded 5% annually, trying to catch up developed economies. But, the growth was driven by domestic demand generated from credit boom, FDIs, remittances and privatization proceeds. Majority of FDIs were in the services sector (banking, insurance, telecommunication, transportation and real estates), less in the sector of tradable goods. The current global financial and economic crisis has not bypassed Serbia and, unfortunately, we are all faced with similar problems. GDP growth rate is -3%, but Serbia is on road to recovery and GDP growth rate of +1.5% in 2010 is expected. Mr. Chairman, Distinguished delegates, Although Serbian economy shows some kind of resilience to the severe negative impact of the world economic crisis, especially in the financial sector, it is very important to return on the trend of at least 5% of GDP growth rate annually, if we want to achieve sustainable economy. Taking into account that an increase in trade generates benefit from factor reallocation, contributes macroeconomic stability, improves productivity and competitiveness, Serbia believes that further trade liberalization, generally and regionally, might be one of the crucial responses to the crisis. In that context, Serbia has started, from the end of January 2009, to unilaterally implement the Interim Agreement with the EU, stressing the orientation to the EU accession that was proved by the recently announced EU Progress Report. It is remarkable that Serbia in 2009 concluded new FTAs with Belarus and Turkey and negotiated FTA with the EFTA parties, as well as extended significantly FTA with the Russian Federation and regional FTA within CEFTA. We are confident that trade protectionism is not an answer to the current global economic situation and our practice has proven our words, at the same time evidently helping our economy to overcome negative impacts of the crisis. Mr. Chairman, Let me emphasize that the Serbian economic priority of becoming a ϲʹ member is compatible with our efforts to combat the crisis, since we believe that greater trade openness and becoming a part of the multilateral trading system would boost economic activities in the country and also improve so much needed competitiveness. The role of ϲʹ in the period of the global economic crisis is even bigger than in the period of economic prosperity. Open and fair trade is a prerequisite for accelerating growth and successful conclusion of the Doha Development Round seems to be even more important for ensuring sustainable growth. A powerful global political will has to be invested in this project. At this very important juncture for the global trade, on ϲʹ members lays the responsibility for restoring the credibility in the multilateral trading system and including new members into the club would only help achieving a goal of getting really the universal character of this organization. Serbia is ready to take full commitments and responsibilities under fair and equitable rules for every country. Mr. Chairman and distinguished delegates, I thank you for your attention.  ~ Z [ kl 3hC{hdhLhnhlhDhDH*hD#$ Z [ L M [ t u lm{|$a$gdD$a$gdd|56$a$gdD 1h/ =!"#$%@@@ NormalCJ_HaJmH sH tH DA@D Default Paragraph FontRiR  Table Normal4 l4a (k(No List #$Z[LM[tul m { | 5 6 0000x00000000x00x00 00 00 0 0 0 0 0x00000000x00 | (Q<)Qi*Q3; +QL3; ,Q-Q.Q|d/Q 4; 0Q1Q 2Qu!3Q44Qr{5Qc6Q1; 7Q8Q3; 9Q:Q$;QL4; Q2; ::SS^ ^      @@eed d  9*urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttagsplaceB*urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttagscountry-region=*urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags PlaceName=*urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags PlaceType 6;<A/ = 33#Mtm { 6 ] IYC{KDnLld@CbCC@UnknownGz Times New Roman5Symbol3& z Arial"qh"&"&  !243HX)?D"The 7th WTO Ministerial ConferenceOljafreelOh+'0  ( D P \hpx$The 7th ϲʹ Ministerial ConferenceOlja Normal.dotfreel2Microsoft Word 10.0@G@^p@^p ՜.+,0  hp|   #The 7th ϲʹ Ministerial Conference Title  "#$%&'(*+,-./03Root Entry FÍ5Data 1TableWordDocument" SummaryInformation(!DocumentSummaryInformation8)CompObjj  FMicrosoft Word Document MSWordDocWord.Document.89q