Reforms necessary - About 90 percent of Austrian companies consider economic situation in Serbia as problematic

According to the results of a survey of economic situation conducted for the second year in a row by the Commercial Section of the Austrian Embassy to Serbia, nearly 90% of Austrian businessmen in Serbia consider the current economic situation in our country as complex and problematic.

And while over 50 percent of survey participants believe that the situation won't change significantly in 2014, 34 percent of them are optimistic and expect an upward trend during the next year. When it comes to business results in 2013, 66% of those polled consider their performance as satisfactory, while 7 percent say it is very good.

About 30 percent of companies gave a positive forecast for their performance in 2014 in spite of all the difficulties. In 2013, 38 percent of survey participants increased their turnover, while 60 percent kept the number of employees and investments at the same level as in 2012.

During a period of about four weeks, 567 managers of Austrian subsidiaries in Serbia took part in this anonymous online survey. Answers were provided by 122 companies, which is 21.5 percent of the total number of businesses invited to participate in the poll.

When asked to comment on business conditions in Serbia, 62% of companies pointed to a big need for improvement, while about third of those polled said they were satisfied.

- Investors want old reforms to continue and new reforms to start. Austrian companies have faith in Serbia's economic future. Good suppliers and cheap manpower are good things, that's for sure - said Andreas Haidenthaler, trade advisor at the Austrian Embassy in Belgrade.

He noted that about 450 Austrian companies were operating in Serbia at the moment.

- Austrian companies are the biggest foreign investors in Serbia, and they have long-term plans for their respective businesses in this country. According to the data provided by the National Bank of Serbia, these companies have so far invested EUR 2.9 billion in Serbia.