Montenegro urgently needs a long-term development strategy outlining essential structural reforms to boost economic diversification, liquidity, competitiveness, and productivity, said Boris Mugoša, President of the Social Democrats parliamentary club.
Mugoša highlighted that illiquidity among businesses is one of the country’s most serious challenges. Since the end of 2020, the number of blocked companies and entrepreneurs has risen by over 2,200, while the total blocked debt has doubled. Small businesses, which make up 93% of all companies and employ about 39% of the workforce, have been operating at a loss for the past six years, with their capital now 25% lower than in 2019.
He emphasized that concrete measures are needed to improve business liquidity, including favorable credit support, reducing fiscal burdens, shifting VAT payments to collected rather than issued invoices, implementing multilateral debt compensation among businesses, enforcing antitrust policies, and controlling payment deadlines to prevent forced long-term crediting by suppliers.
Mugoša also criticized the government for twice rejecting proposals to increase the budget for enhancing business competitiveness by 2 million euros, suggesting that funds could be reallocated from overly high consulting service budgets.
