Local communities in Serbia require more active credit support from domestic and foreign investors

- Municipalities in Serbia annually spends nearly 30% of their incomes or about 400m EUR on the investments, which points to the need that the potential crediting of infrastructural projects at the level of local self-management is also attractive to the banking sector - the participants in the recently organized discussion about development and crediting of local self-management concluded.

The representative of American agency USAID, Steven Rozenberg, said that, in the majority of European countries, the credits approved to municipalities were treated as low-risk investments, even when they were not covered, in the sense of guarantee, by immobile property.

According to his words, the reason for that lies in the fact that the incomes of the municipalities, unlike the companies, do not depend on the sale of goods and services, as well as because of the fact that municipalities can not be liquidated or sold out.

- Almost all municipal investments in Serbia are realized in the way that the investments are as big as the excessive liquid means during one year allow them to be, which is inefficient method for construction of infrastructure - the representative of USAID, Antoni Levitas, pointed out.

According to his opinion, the Government should carry out revision of the Law o public debt and let municipalities provide guarantees for loans that are approved to the public utility companies and, at the same time, local self-management in Serbia should receive bigger percentage from the budget.