Deputy Prime Ministers and Ministers
Ivica Dacic, First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of the Interior
Born in Prizren, 1966.
Graduated from the Faculty of Political Sciences in Belgrade.
He is member of the Serbian parliamentary delegation at the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly. He was vice president of caucuses in national assemblies of the Republic of Serbia and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.
From 1992 he was member of the Citizens’ Council of the National Assembly of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.
From 2004 he was member of the Serbian parliament.
He was Information Minister at the so-called transitional Serbian government from October 2000 until January 2001.
He has been leader of the Socialist Party of Serbia since December 2006.
He was president of Partizan basketball club from Belgrade and vice president of the Yugoslav Olympics Committee.
Married, with two children. Speaks English and Russian.
Bozidar Djelic, Deputy Prime Minister for EU Integration and Minister of Science and Technological Development
Born in Belgrade, 1965.
Graduated from HEC business studies and the Institut d’Etudes Politiques, Paris, France in 1987. He received master degrees in economics and business administration from Harvard Business School, Boston, MA, USA, in 1991. He worked as a privatisation and banking advisor to the Russian, Romanian and Polish governments in 1991-1992. From 1993 until 2000 he was a partner with McKinsey&Company in Paris and California.
He was Minister of Finance and Economy in the Government of the Republic of Serbia from 2001 until 2004. He established a strong and sustainable administration in one of the fastest and most successful public finance reforms in the countries in transition and was director for Central Europe at Credit Agricole SA Group from 2005 to 2007.
From May 2007 until July 2008 he was Serbian Deputy Prime Minister, in charge of European integration. On behalf of Serbia he signed the Stabilisation and Association Agreement in Luxembourg on April 29, 2008. Recognising his achievements in business and politics, the World Economic Forum (Davos) nominated him as Young Global Leader for the period 2005-2010.
Speaks French, English, Russian, Polish and German. Father of two daughters.
Mladjan Dinkic, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy and Regional Development
Born in Belgrade, 1964.
He graduated from the Faculty of Economics, Belgrade University, in 1988, where he received his MSc degree in 1993. From 1990 to 1993, he worked as a trainee at the Faculty, and from 1993 to 2000 he worked as a teaching assistant on the course of Theory and Planning of Economic Growth. He is the founder of Group 17 and was its coordinator from 1997 to 1999. From 1999 to 2000, he was executive director of non-governmental organisation G17 Plus. From 2002 to 2006 he was its vice president, and since 2006 its president.
From 2000 to 2003, Dinkic was governor of the National Bank of Yugoslavia, later the National Bank of Serbia, from 2004 to 2006 he held the post of Minister of Finance in the Serbian government, and from 2007 to July 2008 he held the post of Minister of Economy and Regional Development.
In October 2007 in Washington, he was chosen the finance minister of the year for 2006 by the Euromoney magazine and he received the award for the best European “Najevropljanin” in the field of economy for 2006, given by the European Movement in Serbia.
He has published several books - "The balance sheet: economic consequences of the NATO bombing – evaluation of damages and financing for economic reconstruction of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia", "Economy of destruction" and "Measurement of economic efficiency of use of resources".
He attended a music school, plays the piano. Speaks English.
Married.
Jovan Krkobabic, Deputy Prime Minister
Born in 1930.
Graduated from the Belgrade Faculty of Political Sciences, where he also received an MA and a PhD.
Worked at the Vinca Nuclear Institute for 18 years. He was a founder and director of the association of pension and disability insurance, which later became the Pension and Disability Fund.
Since 2006 he has been leader of the Party of United Pensioners of Serbia and the Union of Pensioners of Serbia.
He has received a number of Serbian and foreign medals and acknowledgments, such as medal for contribution to the people, Yugoslav Red Cross acknowledgment, Belgrade City Plaque and Golden Charter of the UN General Assembly.
He is married, with two sons.
Vuk Jeremic, Minister of Foreign Affairs
Born in Belgrade, 1975.
He graduated in theoretical physics at Cambridge University, UK.
He worked as financial analyst at Deutsche Bank and Dresdner Kleinwort Bensos Bank, and at the same time worked on his thesis in quantitative methods in finances at London’s Imperial College.
He received an MA in public administration from Harvard University, US. Following the October 2000 democratic changes in Serbia, he was appointed advisor to the Federal Minister of Telecommunications and from June 2003 he was advisor to the Serbia-Montenegrin Minister of Defence.
In February 2004 he was appointed chairman of the Democratic Party’s Foreign Affairs Committee and in February 2006 elected to the party’s Main Board. From July 2004 until May 2007 he was foreign policy advisor and head of the Serbian President’s team.
He became Serbian Minister of Foreign Affairs on May 15, 2007 and as such chaired the Council of Europe Committee of Ministers from May to November 2007.
He is married. Speaks English and German.
Dragan Sutanovac, Minister of Defence
Born in Belgrade, 1968.
Attended primary and secondary school in Belgrade. He graduated from the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering in Belgrade.
He specialised in the area of security. He attended specialised courses in the US in the field of law enforcement and received a diploma in the area of security and monitoring issues. He is also holder of a diploma from the Marshall Centre for Security Studies in Garmisch-Partenkirchen. From April to May 2000, he served in the European parliament in Strasbourg and Brussels. In November 2000, he was appointed special advisor at the Federal Ministry of Interior and in 2001 he became Assistant Federal Minister of Interior.
He was elected MP in parliamentary elections in 2000, 2003 and 2007. From 2002 to 2003 he was president of the Serbian parliament’s committee for defence and security, and since 2004 he has held the function of deputy president of the committee.
In local elections in 2000 and 2004, he was voted deputy in the Belgrade City Assembly. He has served as Minister of Defence since May 15, 2007.
Speaks English.
Married, father of two children.
Diana Dragutinovic, Minister of Finance
Born in Belgrade, 1958.
Graduated from the Belgrade Faculty of Economics where she also received an MSc and a PhD and still lectures.
From 2001 until 2002 she was special advisor at the Ministry of Finance and Economy, as well as a special advisor at the International Monetary Fund (2002–2004).
From September 1, 2004 she was Vice Governor of the National Bank of Serbia, in charge of coordination and management of research and statistics, monetary policy and payment systems.
Her main areas of research are macroeconomics, econometric modelling, financial programming, long-term economic growth theory, convergence analysis, inflation, monetary and fiscal policy, poverty and social policy.
She is author of textbooks, ten monographs and over 50 studies, articles and papers.
She is married and a mother of two.
Snezana Malovic, Minister of Justice
Born in Belgrade, 1976.
She graduated from the Faculty of Law in Belgrade in 1999.
From 1999 to 2001 she worked as a legal intern. She passed the bar examination in 2002. She is currently pursuing post-graduate studies at the Faculty of Law in Belgrade.
From 2001 to 2002 she worked as deputy secretary at the ministry of justice and local self-government, and from 2002 to 2003 she was head of the cabinet of the minister of justice and local self-government.
She held the function of secretary-general of the war crimes prosecutor’s office from 2004 to 2007.
She was appointed state secretary at the Justice Ministry in November 2007 and held that function until July 2008.
She has worked on various projects in the area of judiciary. She was a member of working groups for drafting various regulations. She has participated in several seminars and international conferences on international humanitarian law, war crimes in the region, fight against corruption and organised crime and on public administration.
Speaks English and German.
Sasa Dragin, Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Management
Born in Sombor, 1972.
He graduated from the Faculty of Agriculture in Novi Sad where he received an MSc and a PhD.
He was an associate at the Novi Sad Faculty of Agriculture for a year.
Since 2001 he has been assistant lecturer in animal physiology at the Faculty’s Veterinary Department.
From 2004 until 2007 he was Vojvodina Under-Secretary of Agriculture, Water Management and Forestry.
From May 15, 2007 he was Minister of Environmental Protection.
He is married.
Speaks English and has a working knowledge of Slovak and German.
Petar Skundric, Minister of Energy and Mining
Born in 1947.
Graduated and obtained his master’s and doctor’s degrees at the Faculty of Technology and Metallurgy in Belgrade.
He is professor at the Faculty of Technology and Metallurgy in Belgrade, and honorary professor at the St Petersburg University of Technology, the oldest technological institute and university in Russia.
He has more than 200 scientific and expert works, studies and projects to his name. He is a member of various expert associations and editing boards of scientific journals.
He is one of the founding members and first secretary general of the Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS), and was a member of parliament of the former state union of Serbia and Montenegro. Presently he is a member of the board of SPS.
Married, father of two sons.
Milutin Mrkonjic, Minister of Infrastructure
Born in Belgrade, 1942.
Graduated from the Faculty of Civil Engineering in Belgrade at the Department for Roads, Airports and Railways. He worked for 30 years on the most important traffic infrastructure projects in the former Yugoslavia.
He was the first director of the CIP Traffic Institute which under his guidance became the most important research, development, engineering and planning institution in the former Yugoslavia and this part of Europe. Following the 1999 NATO bombing he headed the Board for the Country’s Reconstruction.
A co-founder of the Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS), today he is party vice president and member of its presidency. From 2000 he was a member of the Council of the Republic in the FRY Federal parliament, and later also at the Serbia-Montenegrin parliament.
From 2006 he was an MP in the Serbian parliament and parliament deputy speaker.
He is actively engaged in the board for privatisation, science and technological development, urbanism and civil engineering.
Milan Markovic, Minister of Public Administration and Local Self-Government
Born in Belgrade, 1970.
He is a law graduate and specialised in fight against terrorism at the Faculty of Security Studies in Belgrade.
He was president of the Palilula municipality from 2000 to 2004. He has been an MP since 2001. From 2003 to 2007 he was deputy speaker in the Serbian parliament. He was member of the PKB and Prva Petoletka boards’ of management. He was city councillor from 2000 until 2004.
He was elected MP in the January 21, 2007 parliamentary elections. He served as Minister of Public Administration and Local Self-Government from May 15, 2007 to July 2008.
He teaches at the Faculty of Security Studies and is an associate in research projects.
Speaks English.
Married.
Slobodan Milosavljevic, Minister of Trade and Services
Born in Belgrade, 1965.
He graduated from the Belgrade Faculty of Economics in 1990, where he also received an MSc in 1996 and a PhD in macroeconomics and management in 2001.
He began his career at the Market Research Institute (IZIT) in Belgrade. From 1996 he has served as Director of the Centre for Market Research and Macroeconomic Analysis.
In the period 2001–2004 he was Minister of Trade, Tourism and Services in the first democratic government in Serbia. Prior to being appointed minister he was economic advisor to president of the Democratic Party Dr Zoran Djindjic.
In 2004 he became President of the Serbian Chamber of Commerce.
He is a professor at the Belgrade Business School where he teaches trade policy.
He served as Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Management from May 15, 2007 to July 2008.
He has published over 50 scientific and research works in various journals, publications and monographs of national and international importance. He is author of a university textbook “Trade Policy”.
Married, father of two children.
Zarko Obradovic, Minister of Education
Born in Berane, 1960.
Graduated from the Faculty of Political Sciences in Belgrade, where he later also received his MA and PhD. Published two books and ten papers.
From 1998 until 2000 he was Deputy Minister for Local Self-Government and in the interim government, from October 2000 until January 2001, he was Deputy Minister of Higher Education.
Lecturer at the Megatrend University’s Faculty of Public Administration.
MP since 2001. He was president and deputy president of the SPS caucus in the Serbian parliament.
Deputy President of the Socialist Party of Serbia from December 2006.
Speaks English and has a working knowledge of French.
Married, and a father of two daughters.
Snezana Samardzic-Markovic, Minister of Youth and Sport
Born in Belgrade, 1966.
She graduated from the Faculty of Philology. She is a scholarship holder at the University of Oslo. She has attended the Harvard University Leadership Development Programme.
She served as Minister of Youth and Sports in the previous Serbian government from 2007 to 2008.
In the period 2005–2007 she was Assistant Minister of Defence and was in charge of strategic planning, international military cooperation and the Verification Centre, as well as Co-President of the Serbia-NATO Defence Reform Group.
From 2001 to 2005 she worked in the bilateral department at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs as Deputy Director for Neighbouring Countries, Deputy Head of Mission and Advisor at the Serbia-Montenegrin embassy in Oslo and Advisor at the Directorate for Europe.
Fluent in English and Norwegian, has a working knowledge of Russian.
Married, with two children.
Tomica Milosavljevic, Minister of Health
Born in Krusevac, 1955.
Graduated from the Belgrade Faculty of Medicine.
Professor at the Belgrade Faculty of Medicine. Works at the Clinical Centre in Belgrade as internist, specialising in gastroenterohepatology. Member of the American Gastroenterological Association since 2007.
From October 2000 until 2001 he was a member of the interim administration of the Belgrade Faculty of Medicine, and afterwards member of the board of deans (until June 2002). From February 2001 he was assistant director of the Serbian Clinical Centre and director of the Gastroenterology Clinics.
Minister of Health from June 2001 to July 2003, from March 2004 to November 2006 and from May 2007 to July 2008.
Author of 300 scientific works, published in domestic and foreign medical literature, and lecturer at several domestic and international meetings.
He received professional training in Munich, Amsterdam and London.
Married, with three children.
Jasna Matic, Minister of Telecommunications and Information Society
Born in Belgrade, 1964.
She received a degree in civil engineering in 1994 from the Faculty of Civil Engineering in Belgrade as well as a degree in business administration in 2001 from the Washington University of Saint Louis.
She was appointed State Secretary of the Ministry of Economy and Regional Development in 2007 and held the position until July 2008.
From 2004 to 2007, she was Director of the Serbian Investment and Export Promotion Agency (SIEPA).
She was chief advisor of the project for the promotion of Serbia’s competitiveness to Booz Allen Hamilton, USAID.
From 2001 to 2002, she was advisor to the Yugoslav Deputy Prime Minister. She was a World Bank consultant in Washington D.C. from 2000 to 2001.
From 1994 to 1999, she worked as a civil engineer and project coordinator in Masinoproject Kopring, Belgrade. She is versed in presentation skills, public speaking, negotiating, and management of organisations and processes.
Speaks English, and has a working knowledge of Italian and German.
Rasim Ljajic, Minister of Labour and Social Policy
Born in Novi Pazar, 1964.
He graduated from the Faculty of Medicine in Sarajevo. From 1989 to 2000 he worked as a journalist for numerous dailies and periodicals across the former Yugoslavia.
He entered politics in 1994 when he was elected president of the Sandzak Coalition, which was later renamed the Sandzak Democratic Party in 2000.
Following the 2000 political changes, he was elected Yugoslav Minister of National and Ethnic Communities.
After the December 2000 crisis in the south of Serbia, he was named president of the Coordinating Body for Municipalities of Presevo, Bujanovac and Medvedja. In August 2001, he became Vice President of the Coordinating Centre for Kosovo-Metohija.
After the signing of the Belgrade Agreement in March 2003, he became Serbia-Montenegrin Minister of Human and Minority Rights. Since July 2004, he has been president of the National Council for Cooperation with the ICTY and since July 2006 he has been coordinator for implementation of the Action Plan for cooperation with the ICTY.
The weekly “Nedeljnik Vreme” declared him person of the year 2004, and the European Movement in Serbia gave him the title of “Most European” in politics in 2005.
Since September 2005, he has been president of the Coordinating Body for Municipalities of Presevo, Bujanovac and Medvedja.
He was Minister of Labour and Social Policy from May 15, 2007 to July 2008.
Speaks English and Russian.
Married, with two children.
Oliver Dulic, Minister of Environment and Spatial Planning
Born in Belgrade, 1975.
He completed primary and secondary school in Subotica and graduated from the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Belgrade. He completed a post-graduate specialisation in orthopaedic surgery and traumatology at the Belgrade Faculty of Medicine.
In 2006, he enrolled on a post-graduate course leading to a master’s degree in European Integration and Public Administration at Singidunum University in Belgrade.
He worked as a doctor at the Subotica ambulance and as an orthopaedist at the Subotica health centre.
He entered political life in 1996, when he was one of leaders of the student protest 1996/1997 in Belgrade.
In March 2001, he was appointed as head of Backa North County.
He was elected as Member of Parliament in two legislatures, in Serbian parliament and in the parliament of the State Union of Serbia-Montenegro, where he served as the Chairman of the Committee on European Integration.
On 23 May 2007, he was elected speaker of Serbian parliament.
Since July 2008 he is Minister of Environment and Spatial Planning.
Dulic has been a member of the Democratic Party since 1997.
He is a fluent speaker of English, and a competent user of Hungarian, Norwegian and German.
He is married and lives in Belgrade.
Nebojsa Bradic, Minister of Culture
Born in Trstenik, 1956.
He graduated in theatre and radio directing from the Belgrade Faculty of Dramatic Arts.
From 1981 to 1996 he worked as director, art director and head of the Krusevac Theatre. In the period from 1996 to 1997 he was head of the Atelje 212 theatre. From 1997 to 1999 he was head of the Belgrade National Theatre. He has been head and art director at the Belgrade Drama Theatre since December 2000.
He has directed more than 70 theatre presentations in Serbian, Bosnian and Greek theatres, and has a special affinity to modern Serbian literature and dramatisation. He has directed operas and musicals. He is founder of the Belgrade Dance Festival. He is professor of acting at the Belgrade Academy of Fine Arts. Theatre shows by Nebojsa Bradic were performed in theatres throughout the former Yugoslavia, Italy, Austria, Hungary, England, US, the Czech Republic, Switzerland, Ukraine, Russia, Greece, Albania and Turkey.
He is the recipient of important Serbian theatre awards. He was the first winner of the Nikola Peca Petrovic Award for the best Yugoslav theatre manager. He won nine awards as director at the Joakim Vujic Theatre Festival. He received the Sterija Award for best modern theatre adaptation, dramatisation and directing.
He also received the Golden Knight Award as director. He writes essays and has published a dramatisation of the books “Prokleta Avlija” (The Damned Yard) and “Dervis i Smrt” (The Dervish and Death). He is a member of various artists’ associations and expert bodies of several cultural institutions and events.
He is married.
Verica Kalanovic, Minister for National Investment Plan
Born in Trstenik, 1954.
She graduated in 1977 from the Faculty of Technology and Metallurgy in Belgrade, where she also received a master’s degree in 1980.
From 1980 to 1993, she worked in Prva Petoletka in Trstenik. From 1993 to 2003, she was professor at the post-secondary technical school in Trstenik. From 2000 to 2001, she was member of the Trstenik municipality executive council.
From 2003 to 2006, she was head of G17 Plus caucus in the parliament of Serbia-Montenegro. She was president of the Serbia-Montenegrin parliament's committee for interior economic relations and finances, a member of the parliamentary delegation in the Council of Europe and a member of the committee for local and regional development in the Council of Europe.
She was State Secretary in the Ministry of Economy and Regional Development from 2007 to July 2008.
Married, with two children.
Goran Bogdanovic, Minister for Kosovo-Metohija
Born in Raska, 1963.
He holds a degree from the Belgrade Faculty of Agriculture.
He was manager of JUKO in Srbica from 1992 to 1996. From 1996 to 2002 he was state agricultural inspector. From 2002 to 2004, he was minister of agriculture of Kosovo-Metohija, after which he resumed the position of state agricultural inspector again.
Member of the Democratic Party since 2000. President of the Democratic Party's provincial committee. He was elected MP from the Serbian List in the Kosovo-Metohija assembly.
Member of the Serbian negotiating team for Kosovo-Metohija.
He was elected MP to the Serbian parliament in January 21, 2007.
Speaks Russian and English.
Married, with two sons.
Bogoljub Sijakovic, Minister of Religion
Born in Niksic, 1955.
He received a degree and MA from the Faculty of Philosophy in Belgrade and PhD from the Faculty of Philosophy in Sarajevo in 1989.
He is a professor of philosophy at the Orthodox Theological Faculty in Belgrade.
From 2000 to 2001, he was Yugoslav minister of religion.
Married, with two children.
Srdjan Sreckovic, Minister of the Diaspora
Born in Belgrade, 1974.
Obtained his master’s degree at the Faculty of Economics in Belgrade.
He is deputy president of the Serbian Renewal Movement (SPO).
He is Jat Airways Assistant Director-General, and served as assistant minister of trade, tourism and services from 2004 to 2007.
Speaks English.
He is married.
Svetozar Ciplic, Minister of Human and Minority Rights
Born in Novi Sad, 1965.
He graduated from the Law School in Novi Sad, where he also received a master’s degree. He has been employed at the school since 1995, where he teaches constitutional law.
He was member of the Novi Sad executive council in charge of administration and regulations in 2001.
From 2002 to 2007, he served on the bench of the Serbian Constitutional Court.
Married, with two children.
Sulejman Ugljanin, Minister without Portfolio
Born in Kosovska Mitrovica, 1953.
He graduated from the Faculty of Dentistry in Sarajevo, where he also completed his specialisation.
He worked as a dentist for 12 years at the Novi Pazar Medical Centre.
He has been president of the Party of Democratic Action of Sandzak since July 29, 1990 and head of the Bosniak National Council in Serbia.
He was elected to the federal parliament in November 1996 elections in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.
In the first direct elections in 2004, he was elected municipal president of Novi Pazar.
He is married, father of four children.