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The Government of the Republic of Serbia

In the service of citizens

Higher birth rate, better living standard priorities for 2023

Belgrade, 2 January 2023

Prime Minister Ana Brnabic announced that the government of Serbia has ambitious plans for 2023 in terms of increasing the birth rate, while the second priority will be better living standard of citizens.

In her New Year's interview with the Tanjug agency, Brnabic stated that the armed conflict in Kosovo and Metohija was avoided and peace was preserved only thanks to the wise policy of President of Serbia Aleksandar Vucic.

She said that in 2023 she expects further instability in Kosovo and Metohija, noting that the previous year was marked by instability created by Prime Minister of the temporary institutions of Pristina Albin Kurti, with his unilateral moves and terror against the Serbs.

When asked if she has a professional or a personal wish that she would like to see come true in 2023, as well as what she would like for the citizens of Serbia, she stated that her only wish at the moment is peace.

Peace is what we need in order to continue everything we have been doing for a number of years, what we have fought for and to ensure that Serbia continues to progress, that all our citizens have everything they deserve and realise all their potentials, the Prime Minister said.

She added that she would like to see even greater support from all international partners so that peace is preserved in this part of Europe, in the Balkans.

Speaking about the plans of the government of Serbia for 2023, the Prime Minister stated that the first priority is the further growth of the standard of living of our people and the continuous growth of wages and pensions.

She added that she is particularly proud of the fact that, despite the difficult times caused by the coronavirus pandemic in 2020 and 2021 and the war in Eastern Europe in 2022, Serbia managed to be one of the few countries on the European continent to have sustainable and continuous wage growth and pension.

It remains a priority. We want to have a further increase in salaries and pensions in 2023, to go towards what we have set as a goal – to have an average salary of €1,000 and an average pension of €500 by 2026, said the Prime Minister.

For the year 2023, as she pointed out, the first and most important goal is to try to reverse the trend in the birth rate and to invest not only more money, but also to talk more about it, to spend more time and energy in pro-natal policy.

Those two goals are what we are fighting for, those two goals will mean a stronger Serbia in the future, she emphasised.

The Prime Minister confirmed that large capital infrastructure projects set until 2024 will continue this year, noting that the high-speed railway to the border with Hungary should be completed.

Brnabic pointed out that by the end of 2023, projects such as the highway to Pozega, the highway to Krusevac and the bypass around Belgrade should be completed, and she expressed satisfaction with the start of the construction of a capital project in science, which is BIO4 campus.

When it comes to the challenges that the government of Serbia will face in 2023, apart from the instability in Kosovo and Metohija, she stated that they will spill over from 2022 into this year, which means that the longer they last, the more difficult they will be.

I expect the war in Ukraine to continue, which will mean further challenges in every sense, primarily energy and an even more difficult winter in 2023 for which we are already preparing, but also great challenges for our economy due to the recession in some European economies to which we are directly connected. Further weakening of some European economies or EU countries in that economic sense will mean many challenges for us, the Prime Minister pointed out.

Noting that she expects additional caution from investors, Brnabic said that 2022 was an absolute record year for the inflow of foreign direct investments, and that more and more energy is needed to continue that trend.