27 December 2018 - Prime Minister Duško Marković called on business people to work together with the Government to suppress the grey economy he considers the key deficit of Montenegro's economy.
"The grey economy is devastating not only for the economic environment and business operations of your companies, but also for the consciousness of our people. We need to show that the moonlighting is unethical, unreasonable and punishable by the law," said the Prime Minister.
"We need to introduce a state of emergency in the administration to tackle weaknesses," the Prime Minister noted, adding that he does not allow excuses for shared competences and that in 2019 the Government will be focused on addressing this kind of challenge.
The Prime Minister said that each of Government's policies must take into account the people who work for the country, that is, an individual, an employee, a worker. Given the fact that many data have been presented at the meeting, the Prime Minister added that such a political situation, such a course of reforms and this result contributed to the growth of company's profit. "I would like part of that profit to be redirected to the standard of employees in companies. If we managed to register this in the six months of the following year as a new approach, I tell you this would become a real story ... to finally begin to reduce the tax burden on labour. There is no justification that it is now at the level of 67%. No business plan can justify such high burden rates. This Government speaks openly; we are the people who recognise weaknesses. But we are also the people who are obligated before the Constitution and before the law to respond to these weaknesses," Prime Minister Duško Marković pointed out.
Speaking about projections for the next year, the Prime Minister said he appreciates the conservative projections of the Ministry of Finance for 2019 of 2.8%, but that he expects much more.
"If I knew it would be 2.8% in 2019, I would resign today. I respect the projection, but I am not interested in it! I want higher growth! The growth could be at the level of 4.1%, not 2.8%. That should be our task. We respect estimates, but we need to achieve more. Because of you, your employees, we have to do this because of the citizens of Montenegro, because of our future and our economy. There is no overall progress unless we have a developed economy and long-term sustainable growth," Prime Minister Duško Marković highlighted.
He thanked the business people for their partnership, understanding and solidarity in working together with the Government to overcome the challenges, limitations and deficits, and said that in the next year, the Government will remains a partner of the Chamber of Commerce.
