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The Government of the Republic of Serbia

In the service of citizens

Talks with Montenegro on obligatory social insurance begin on July 10

Belgrade, 6 July 2006

Serbian Minister of Labour, Employment and Social Policy Slobodan Lalovic announced today that talks on concluding an interstate agreement between Serbia and Montenegro regarding obligatory social insurance will begin on July 10.

From left: Slobodan Lalovic, Velimir Ilic and Tomica Milosavljevic

At a press conference following the government session, Lalovic said that the government has adopted a basis for conducting the talks on the agreement and voiced belief that the talks will be successful.

According to Lalovic, the agreement will regulate the issues of health care and insurance, maternity protection, pension and disability insurance, injuries at work, professional illnesses and financial compensation for unemployment.

The first problem that will have to be solved as soon as Monday is June pensions for pensioners from Montenegro, said Lalovic adding that this issue cannot wait for the conclusion of the agreement, but could be solved on the principle of reciprocity.

In the course of the next week, the government will begin paying out severance payments for 1,800 workers of Zeleznice Srbije public railway company, totalling around 500 million dinars, said the Minister.

Serbian Minister of Capital Investment Velimir Ilic said that at its session today, the government passed a Conclusion on drafting a regional plan of revision regarding the construction of Corridor 10 from Nis to the Macedonian border.

He said the project will be endorsed by the Greek government which wishes to co-finance the works on the road from Leskovac to the Macedonian border, adding that the Serbian government will provide loans for the project.

Ilic said that the project of Nis-Dimitrovgrad highway is completed and that a tender for its construction should begin soon, along with a tender for construction of the part of Corridor 10 from Horgos to Novi Sad.

The government decided at its session today to give guarantees for a loan from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) for vehicles and railway infrastructure. The total value of credit lines will be €140 million, of which €60 million will be set aside for the purchase of vehicles for the railway.

The Minister said that owing to this loan, there will be a lot of work for Serbia's metal complex, such as Gosa, Bratstvo, Vagoni, Sinvoz, and Zelvoz companies, adding that these are the most favourable funds our country could receive.

Speaking about severance pay for 1,800 workers of railway, Ilic said that part of the funds for that purpose will be borrowed from the privatisation fund to which they will be returned by the end of this year, following the privatisation of railway daughter companies.

Serbian Minister of Health Tomica Milosavljevic said that the government brought at today's session a Decree on increasing prices of medicines, according to which prices of medicines will be increased three times - in July and October this year and in March next year.

He explained that medicines priced at 40% below the average price of medicines in neighbouring countries, such as Slovenia, Croatia and Italy, will become more expensive by 6%.

The Minister said that this price increase will mean correction of disparities between prices with which the pharmaceutical industry has been dissatisfied all this time.