Brnabic: The plans for 2023 are ambitious - the reversal of the birth rate trend is the most important

The Government of Serbia has ambitious plans for 2023, and as the Prime Minister of Serbia, Ana Brnabic, says, the first and most important goal will be an attempt to reverse the trend in the birth rate, while the second goal will be a further increase in the standard of living of citizens, RTV reports.

Brnabic, in a New Year's interview for Tanjug, says that the plans are mostly similar to those that were earlier, which were set by Aleksandar Vucic as prime minister in 2014 because, as she adds, all governments from then until today are governments of continuity.

"In the first place is the further growth of the standard of living of our people, the continuous growth of wages and pensions," the Prime Minister says.

She states that she is particularly proud of the fact that Serbia managed to, despite the difficult times caused by the corona virus pandemic in 2020 and 2021 and the war in Eastern Europe in 2022, to be one of the few countries on the European continent to have sustainable and continuous wage growth and pension.

"And that remains a priority. We want to have continued growth in wages and pensions in 2023, to go towards what we have set as a goal, to have an average salary of 1,000 Euros and an average pension of 500 Euros by 2026," says Branabic.

For the year 2023, according to the Prime Minister, the first and most important goal is to try even harder to reverse the trend in the birth rate and to invest not only more money, but also to talk about it more, to spend more time and energy on the pro-natal policy. 

"Those two goals are what we are fighting for, those two goals will mean a stronger Serbia in the future," she pointed out.

The prime minister says that she is continuing with large capital infrastructure projects and in this sense states that the high-speed railway to the border with Hungary should be completed by 2024.

After the partners from Hungary finish their part, she points out, by 2025 we should be able to go by high-speed train between Belgrade and Budapest.

"It's a different perspective for all of us, but also a different way of connecting with our friends and partners in Hungary," the Prime Minister said.

She adds that by the end of 2023, projects such as the highway to Pozega, then the highway to Krusevac and the bypass around Belgrade should be completed.

The Prime Minister is very much looking forward to the start of the construction of a capital project in science, which is the BIO4 campus.

"This is what will mark Serbia as the center of this part of Europe in the sciences of the future - biotechnology, biomedicine, bioinformatics and biodiversity, and we should start building it by September, as well as continue investing in science and technology parks," says Brnabic. 

She points out that this is exactly what makes it possible for young people to stay in Serbia, for many young people from abroad and the diaspora to return to Serbia.

As she says, a new science and technology park is being built in Krusevac.

"Krusevac deserved it, they have enormous potential, they have shown that it is worth investing in a science and technology park. It is time to move on to phase 2 - further expansion of the science and technology parks in Belgrade, Cacak and Nis. Those parks are already full and earlier than any of us could have imagined and it's time to start building new ones. It's a new perspective, a new and different Serbia, and it's something we're all proud of," the prime minister said.

When it comes to the challenges that the Government of Serbia will face in 2023, apart from the instability in Kosovo, the Prime Minister says that they will spill over from 2022 into this year, which means that the longer they last, the more difficult they will be.

"I expect the war in Ukraine to continue, which will mean further challenges in every sense, primarily energy and an even more difficult winter in 2023 for which we are already preparing, for which we have started preparations, but also great challenges for our economy due to recessions in some European economies to which we are directly linked. So the further weakening of some European economies or EU countries in that economic sense will mean many challenges for us," the Prime Minister stated.

Stating that she expects additional caution from investors, Brnabic says that 2022 was an absolute record year for the inflow of foreign direct investments, and that more and more energy is needed to continue that trend.