The Ministry of Economy, in cooperation with the Serbian Business Registers Agency (SBRA), presented a single and publicly available database of state-owned enterprises, registered with the SBRA's Business Entities Register. This innovative digital platform will enable data transparency, facilitating simple and fast data search.
Assistant Minister of Economy, Dubravka Drakulić, has pointed out that this is the first step in the implementation of the Action Plan of the Strategy of State Ownership and Management of Business Entities Owned by the Republic of Serbia, for the period from 2021 to 2027.
Drakulić said: “The general goal of the Strategy is reflected in the sustainable and efficient governance of state-owned enterprises (“RSOEs”), reflecting the Government's commitment to reform this area, increase the citizens’ benefits from state ownership, achieve strategic and development goals, as well as protect the general interest of the Republic of Serbia. The initiated reform of public enterprises is comprehensive and will expand to all RSOEs, acting as an important lever in the development of the overall economy of the Republic of Serbia. The records will improve the availability of data that haven’t been easily accessible so far. At the same time, it is a step forward in the digitalization of the economy”.
As she has stated, the implementation of this activity required a systemic and comprehensive approach. “Thereby”, she said „the Ministry has fulfilled the long-standing necessity for integrating data into one interactive records, comprising not only all RSOEs, but also their subsidiaries and their assets, all with the aim to enable the state support in applying ownership objectives and management of the portfolio of state-owned enterprises”, and added: “We are especially grateful to the SBRA team for its prompt and efficient cooperation with the Public Enterprises and Privatisation Sectors of the Ministry of Economy, which have joined their maximum efforts and completed this important activity even before the stipulated deadline”.
The Director of the Serbian Business Registers Agency, Milan Lučić, has underlined that SBRA currently keeps 10 registers and data records falling within the competence of the Ministry of Economy, the maintenance of which has been entrusted to SBRA as a delegated task.
He added: “Together with the competent Ministry, which provides full institutional and professional support to the SBRA, we have created electronic records of business entities owned by the Republic of Serbia. The records contain publicly available business data, legal status data, percentage of state’s share in business entities, as well as other data on business entities owned by the Republic of Serbia”.
As Lučić has emphasized, the records contain data on state-owned business entities registered with the SBRA Business Entities Register, such as shareholders, legal representatives, members of supervisory and executive boards, registered capital, branches etc., as well as memoranda of association, articles of association and other documents, including the Registrar’s decisions that are also publicly available.
“Data search engine enables access to data on 314 state-owned business entities. The records will be automatically updated with the Business Entities Register data. Therefore, along with other business and financial data currently published, the Serbian Business Registers Agency will enable full transparency of business data on state-owned business entities”, concluded Lučić.
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The Strategy of State Ownership and Management of Business Entities Owned by the Republic of Serbia, for the period from 2021 to 2027 has been developed with the support of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD). It is a single policy document that provides a strategic vision and guidance on corporate governance objectives, financial and public policy objectives, as well as corporate governance principles and supervisory practices in accordance with international standards and best practices.