First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Serbia Ivica Dacic had talks today with Mr. William Isaacs, WB consultant, about the support of this financial institution to the Government of the Republic of Serbia in implementing its programmes and defined priority goals.

The Minister thanked the World Bank for joining and supporting the Government's efforts to formulate and adopt an Action Plan for the implementation of the Government Programme, based on the principle of so-called results-oriented management. The Action Plan was adopted on 17 November 2016, when, with the support of the World Bank, a new approach to the AP implementation was launched. This enabled the Government to oversee in a systematic and streamlined manner all the activities aimed at achieving results in the envisaged time-frames, identify potential internal and external risks in implementing the priorities as well the projected effects on citizens.

Minister Dacic informed his interlocutors about the activities of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs related to key priorities of the Government, particularly on strengthening economic ties worldwide, i.e. the promotion of economic diplomacy, by enhancing international trade performance of Serbia through synergy between foreign policy and foreign investment activities of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and other relevant Government sectors.

The Minister recalled that the Ministry had already been working on amendments to the Law on Foreign Affairs to include the future authority of the foreign department concerning the appointment of economic diplomats abroad to regularly conduct activities aimed at attracting foreign investments and trade partners. The Serbian Government and its Chamber of Commerce and Industry were jointly engaging with other governmental sectors in developing an Action Plan to boost exports. The increase in exports and more foreign investments in Serbia were of vital interest and one of the main tasks of the diplomatic network.

He also informed his interlocutors about the activities of the Ministry aimed at establishing a system for coordination of foreign development aid, as well as a system for the dispatching of civilian experts on international missions. He recalled that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs was part of the efforts to develop new strategic documents in the fields of security and defence.

Minister Dacic relayed to his interlocutors that the Foreign Ministry coordinated related activities and reported on the priority goal, namely the promotion of regional cooperation as well as reputation and position of the Republic of Serbia, while monitoring all activities related to implementation of commitments concerning key regional infrastructure projects, regional policy and tourism, youth connectivity in the region, as well as the administration of EU funds and the Western Balkans Investment Framework, aiming for successful realization of major infrastructure projects.

Although the application of the new concept of activity management aimed at achieving the Government's priority goals had started fairly recently with the support of the World Bank, a full commitment and a satisfactory success rate was shown by the Foreign Ministry and other governmental sectors, followed by a strong engagement of the Office of the Prime Minister and of the Republic Secretariat for Public Policies in the implementation of new standards in defining, monitoring and carrying out activities and reporting on each of the goals set by the Government.

The Minister expressed his expectation that, in the coming period, once the process itself was on course, new experiences and the support of the World Bank would contribute to the quality of the work done by all parties involved being raised to a higher level and becoming a routine enough, thus helping the entire Government to achieve its goals more efficiently.