Western Balkans Competitiveness Outlook 2024: Serbia

The Western Balkans Competitiveness Outlook (CO) 2024 is the fourth edition of the OECD’s flagship publication that offers an in-depth assessment across 15 policy areas key to bolstering economic competitiveness in the Western Balkans. The CO provides comprehensive guidance to navigate economic reforms, enhance regional co-operation and help the region’s economies align their legal frameworks and policies with those of the OECD and EU. It also enables policy makers to track performance over time, by comparing outcomes against those reported in the previous editions since 2016.

The CO 2024 comprises seven reports: one regional and six economy profiles. Each economy profile evaluates performance across each of the 15 policy dimensions, highlighting areas of progress as well as those requiring continued improvement. The regional profile presents findings for the whole Western Balkans across five policy clusters – infrastructure and connectivity, skills, business environment, digital transformation and greening – and seeks to evaluate the broader regional trends in these areas.

Complementing these reports, the publication’s findings are accessible for the first time through a landmark interactive digital tool: the Western Balkans Competitiveness Data Hub. By providing policy makers with an enhanced ability to assess and benchmark economic reforms seamlessly, the Data Hub aims to support policy makers in designing economic reforms that drive competitiveness and convergence.

The Serbia profile of the CO is the outcome of work co-ordinated by the South East Europe Division. The assessment was conducted under the guidance of Andreas Schaal, Director of the OECD Global Relations and Co-operation Directorate, and Marzena Kisielewska, Head of the OECD South East Europe Division.

Umur Gökçe and Ali-Fuad Turgut (OECD South East Europe Division) led this work, which was initially also managed by Martin Kohtze. The project also benefitted from inputs by William Tompson (OECD Global Relations and Co-operation Directorate), who served as the lead reviewer of the publication.

Our special thanks also go to the Serbian government officials and other stakeholders who have been actively involved in the data collection process and whose support and dedication have made this publication possible. We would especially like to acknowledge the contributions of Gojko Stanivuković, State Secretary of the Ministry of Finance, and Bojana Tošic, Director of the Public Policy Secretariat, as CO National Coordinators of Serbia, for their political support in conducting the assessment. On the operational level, we are thankful for co-ordination support provided by: Ministry of Finance team: Verica Ignjatović, Sanja Stojadinović and Magdalena Arsić; Public Policy Secretariat team: Sanja Mešanović, Svetlana Aksentijević, Jovan Borišić and Igor Momčilović and Nikica Rodin, the National Statistical Office Coordinator of Serbia; as well as the following individuals, who supported the data‑gathering and verification process.

The principal authors of the report were Umur Gökçe, Ali-Fuad Turgut and Judith Koren (front matter), Damaris Bangean and Judith Koren (Context), Victor Duggan and Zofia Polakiewicz (investment policy and promotion); Zofia Polakiewicz (trade policy); Benoit Dicharry (access to finance); Bert Brys and Daniel Fichmann in co‑operation with Stephanie Lizzo and Benoit Dicharry (tax policy); Korin Kane, in co-operation with Viktoria Chernetska and Alexandra Prokschy (state-owned enterprises); Valts Kalnins in co-operation with Viktoria Chernetska and Alexandra Prokschy (anti-corruption policy); Elma Aga (education policy); Nicola Duell and Burim Bilali in co-operation with Stephanie Lizzo and Matija Lojpur (employment policy); Marko Atanasovski in co-operation with Matija Lojpur and Alexandra Prokschy (science, technology and innovation); Despina Anastasiadou in co-operation with Marijana Petrovic and Hana Aljevic (digital society); Vatsalya Sohu and Matija Lojpur (transport policy); Tobias Heldt in co‑operation with Matija Lojpur (energy policy); Clémence Girin, Jovana Pavlović Djukic and Dafina Marashi (environment policy); Stephanie Lizzo and Drini Imami in co-operation with Sophia Katsira (agriculture policy); Kai Partale and Sophia Katsira (tourism policy).

The report benefited from further input from Jane Stacey, Kristen Corrie and Hannes Thees (OECD Centre for Entrepreneurship, SMEs, Regions and Cities); Alejandra Medina, Sara Sultan, Alexandre De Crombrugghe, Martin Kohtze and Tugba Mulazimoglu (OECD Directorate for Financial and Enterprise Affairs); Caitlyn Guthrie and Lucia Alonso (OECD Directorate for Education and Skills); Javier Lopez Gonzalez, Silvia Sorescu, Janos Ferencz, Jibran Punthakey, Chiara Del Giovane and Cemre Balaban (OECD Trade and Agriculture Directorate); Glenda Quintini and Anne Lauringson (OECD Directorate for Employment, Labour and Social Affairs); Theresa Gebhardt and Talya Vatman (International Energy Agency); and Guineng Chen (International Transport Forum).

Our special thanks also go to Mathieu Bousquet, Sandrine Beauchamp, Javier Menendez Bonilla and Elin Fredriksson of the European Commission’s Directorate-General Neighbourhood and Enlargement Negotiations (DG NEAR), as well as the European Union (EU) Delegation in Serbia, all of whom reviewed, provided feedback and supported the publication. The following local expert reviewed and provided input to the report: Nemanja Šormaz.

The report was prepared for publication by Jennifer Allain, with the strategic support of Robert Akam (OECD Global Relations and Co-operation Directorate). It was edited and proofread by Randall Holden. The following people also contributed to the success of the project: Dardan Gashi, Vojtech Holik and Stefano Ottino.

This report has been produced with the financial assistance of the EU. The views expressed here do not reflect the official position of the EU nor its Member States.