Brnabic: 2023 plans ambitious, we must reverse birth rate trends

BELGRADE - The Serbian government has ambitious plans for 2023, the first and foremost one being to reverse the negative birth rate trend, says PM Ana Brnabic, noting that further growth of living standards will remain the second-highest priority.

"Those two objectives are what we are fighting for, those two objectives will mean a stronger Serbia in the future," Brnabic told Tanjug in an interview.

Brnabic said the plans were generally similar to those set in 2014 by then-PM Aleksandar Vucic.

"We want to continue to have wage and pension growth in 2023 as well and have an average wage of 1,000 euros and an average pension of 500 euros by 2026," Brnabic said.

She said major capital infrastructure projects were continuing as well and that a high-speed rail line to the Hungarian border should be completed by 2024.

Once the Hungarian partners finish their stretch of the route, we should be able to travel between Belgrade and Budapest on high-speed trains by 2025, Brnabic said.

She noted that she was extremely looking forward to a capital project in science - the construction of a BIO4 campus.

"It will mark Serbia as the hub of this part of Europe when it comes to the sciences of the future - biotech, biomedicine, bioinformatics and biodiversity, and we are due to start building it by September, as well as to continue to invest in science and technology parks," Brnabic said.

She said challenges from 2022 - including instability in Kosovo-Metohija - would carry over to this year and would be the more difficult the longer they lasted.

"I expect the Ukraine war to continue, which will mean further challenges in every way, above all, in terms of energy, and an even more difficult winter in 2023, for which we are already preparing, as well as major challenges for our economy due to recession in some European economies we are directly tied to. So, a further decline of some European economies or EU countries in that economic sense will mean many challenges for us," Brnabic said.

Noting that she expected investors to be even more cautious, Brnabic said 2022 had been a record year in terms of FDI inflow and that more and more energy was needed to maintain that trend.