Within the framework of the Action Project, the Centre for Democratic Transition (CDT) has published a document aimed at launching inclusive public consultations on the key potentials, weaknesses, opportunities and future scenarios encouraging the development of Montenegro’s economy.
Executive Director of CDT, Dragan Koprivica, has said that the publication was produced with the support of the regional project “SMART Balkans – Civil society for shared society in the Western Balkans”, implemented by the Centre for Civil Society Promotion (CPCD), the Centre for Research and Policy Making (CRPM), and the Institute for Democracy and Mediation (IDM), with financial support from the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
“A team of experts from different fields had worked for months on the document, which offers observations on different areas that can affect economic development,” Koprivica said in a press release.
Thus, the interested community can read about the key development advantages, weaknesses and potential development models of Montenegro, the problematic transition, the need to adopt the real concept of sustainable development of the country, the necessity of social capital development, key issues in the fields of energy, tourism, production and agriculture, analysis of macroeconomic indicators and other interesting topics.
Koprivica stated that they want to start the process of organizing different types of public debates about the initial ideas they presented in the publication.
– The goal is to hear as many different opinions, suggestions and well-intentioned criticism as possible, which we will implement in this document. After that, we will try to prepare several scenarios that will actually represent alternative ways of developing the Montenegrin economy – explained Korpivica.
Also, as he added, they want to include as many actors of public life and experts from different fields as possible and start a debate that will eventually become political.
– Our ambition is to try to create a political consensus on the key directions for starting the economic development of the state, the majority of political entities accept at least the key parts. We believe that we need the continuity of economic development directions. We need that with the arrival of new governments, we do not start from the beginning, but that the path be paved, and that each new government brings new ideas and specifics in crossing those paths and achieving the set goal – said Koprivica.
According to him, since it is obvious that the existing political and national polarization of society makes political consensus impossible, it remains to be checked whether this consensus is possible in the field of economics.
The publication was prepared as part of the Action project, which aims to include individuals, associations and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) with high professional references, in a dialogue about all important problems that burden Montenegrin society.
In this way, we are creating a kind of knowledge base about different segments of the functioning of the state, which we will offer to state authorities as support for creating a better and fairer society. The views and assertions in this document do not necessarily reflect the views of the CDT – concluded Koprivica.
