21 January 2019 - Prime Minister Duško Marković said that 2018 was the year of demanding and progressive work of the Government and continuous progress of Montenegro, especially on the economic level, but also in the development of European integration, and he announced that the priorities of the Government this year would be the continuation of implementation of the obligations from the European agenda, more intense dynamics and comprehensive action against the informal economy. Prime Minister Marković participated in a special meeting of EU ambassadors and Head of the EU Delegation in Podgorica and emphasised that they are witnessing the continuous progress of Montenegro.
"In addition to demanding and hard work, all the more visible effects of progress towards the European Union and membership in NATO are contributing to the quality of stability, which creates the space for us to dedicate ourselves unhindered to what society needs for sustainable development. In the year behind us, definitely a significant achievement of the Government is its economic policy, which continued to deliver excellent results in all the most important parameters. The growth of the economy in 2018 is impressive and equals 4.5% in the first quarter, 4.9 in the second, and in the third, it was 5%. The gross income per capita has also grown. In the past year, the unemployed were almost 10,000 less than in 2017. The unemployment rate has decreased by 4 percent from 22.1 percent, at the end of 2017. The decrease in unemployment has contributed to an increase in overall economic activity, strong economic growth, which has led to the creation of new jobs, that is, an increase in the number of employees by close to 7,000 at the end of 2018 compared to the same period of 2017 or nearly 12,000 in relation to the end of 2016"- said the Prime Minister at a meeting with the ambassadors of the member states of the European Union.
Prime Minister Marković emphasised that revenue collection in the past year was higher than almost 180 million EUR, that the budget deficit in 2018 was 3.5 percent compared to 5.7 percent in 2017, and that according to the data of the Central Bank Montenegro, the total inflow of foreign direct investments for the twelve months of 2017 amounted to 659 million EUR, and in the first 11 months last year, 747 million EUR.
Addressing the ambassadors of the European Union, the Prime Minister outlined the breakdown of the boycott of parliament and the beginning of dialogue within the parliamentary working group on electoral legislation as an important fact in the political agenda of the last year.
"I will repeat once again: dialogue can be conducted only in institutions, where only citizens' interests are promoted and democracy strengthened. In this year, the priorities of the Government are clear: primarily the continuation of obligations from the European agenda with an even more intense and better quality dynamics. Our goal is to open the only remaining chapter, Chapter 8 - Competition, meeting provisional benchmarks in Chapters 23 and 24 and reaching our internal readiness to close the chapters. We have already made progress in fulfilling obligations from the last benchmarks in six negotiating chapters," Prime Minister Marković said.
"Our goal is even more accelerated growth of the economy and creation of new jobs through the realization of capital investments, with foreign investments, further development of small and medium enterprises and improvement of business environment. To achieve this goal, the Government will launch a comprehensive action against the informal economy this year with normative interventions as well as strong and determined actions of tax authorities and law enforcement agencies. Certainly, we will continue to be active in the region in supporting neighbours and transferring our experiences from the integration processes. We will continue to justify the position we have in the process of joining the Union, within the region and as a member of NATO with our actions," the Prime Minister noted.
Prime Minister Duško Marković thanked the ambassadors for their engagement and contribution to the development of Montenegro and congratulated Romania for taking over the presidency of the Council of the European Union.
"We know that during the presidency, Romania will have difficult tasks ahead, issues of the EU's multi-annual budget, Brexit, migration ... so we appreciate that among the priorities IS the issue of enlargement as well. We are confident that they will successfully face these challenges. I want to thank Austria, during whose presidency we have opened a very important Chapter 27 - Environment and Climate Change. Cooperation with the Three, which, in addition to Romania, includes Finland and Croatia, is an additional opportunity for us in the coming period, because all three countries are our friends and partners who understand the Western Balkans and Montenegro, as well as the significance of the enlargement policy," the Prime Minister stated.
The meeting was also addressed by the Ambassador of Romania to Montenegro, Ferdinand Findi, who spoke about the priorities of the Romanian Presidency of the Council of the European Union, as well as the head of the EU Delegation to Montenegro, Aivo Orav.
