Cooperation of regions and Government

Brussels, June 26 2001 (Beta) - The main message of the participants of the International meeting "Reconstruction and Private Sector Investment", held today in Brussels, was firstly that political stability must be established, and then investment would follow.

The director of the agency for encouraging investment and export, Dusan Zivkovic, which is associated with the Serbian Government, said at a meeting that Yugoslavia could not conduct reform without "serious help from abroad, from the Donors' conference as well as from the rescheduling of debts."

He explained that "through the programme of reforms we have done everything that a government is able to do, it is up to us to persevere, whereas the international community should give us unreserved support".

Zivkovic said to the Beta news agency that "if Yugoslav reform, with the help of the international community, is successful, it can be expected that South-East Europe with Serbia as one of the main factors in the region, will become 'a new economic tiger', like Thailand, Malaysia, etc."

The meeting was organized by the Stability Pact for South-East Europe, the German foundation Konrad Adenauer, the World Bank and some other organizations. Experts and representatives of governments from the Balkan region were also present.