radovan jelasic : 125th anniversary of the enactment of the first law on the national bank of serbia speech by mr radovan jelasic, governor of the national bank of serbia, on the 125th anniversary of the enactment of the first law on the national bank of serbia, belgrade, 31 january 2008. * * * ladies and gentlemen, institutional anniversaries such as the one today are the right time to look back at what has been achieved and to ask ourselves if we have managed to preserve the fundamental values of our society and state. today, we are celebrating 125th anniversary of enactment of the first law on the national bank of serbia, which laid the cornerstone of one of the most important institutions of the serbian state. preparations for the enactment of this law lasted for about a decade, as can be seen from a document dating from as far back as 1873. the leading people of that time understood the need for the young serbian state to pursue the most advanced european standards and visited almost a half of european countries, including germany, switzerland and belgium, to learn more about modern central bank organization and operations and to apply this knowledge in formulating the law on the central bank. at that time, there was no brussels administration and serbia was offered no technical or any other assistance, but the makers of the first law on the national bank of the kingdom of serbia had a clear vision of the country ’ s future and of what needed to be done for serbia to catch up and keep pace with the best european practice. anniversaries are also an occasion to remind ourselves of the fundamental ideas, aims and visions, and to see how close we are to achieving them! for the national bank of serbia, entering the 21st century meant a return to the main ideals and spirit of the law enacted in 1883 – to build an independent and professional institution, which is just and fair in the distribution of money. it is misleading to portray serbia as being on a crossroads between the east and the west, dithering between european integrations or their opposite. europe has both an “ east ” and a “ west ”, a “ north ” and a “ south ” – in this europe, we all are equal but different! in practice, such “ europe ”, the europe woven into the law of 125 years ago, means simply that we must work harder, better and more responsibly ; that we must renounce daily populism, sycophantism and pol

. put differently : keep the real economy going ; make sure economic growth does not shrink ; ensure your business maintains the same rates and that employment grows instead of reducing. this, dear participants, is may otherwise be referred to as ensuring the stability of the country ’ s economic growth. on behalf of the institution i represent, i would like to assure you that the bank of albania – being one of the main economic and financial decision - making authorities at home – remains entirely committed in this context. the times we are going through require all the development strategies, economic policies, measures and rules to undergo a strict cost / benefit analysis. in this context, although the crisis is not outlined yet, we have already drawn the first lessons from it. public and private authorities need to consider these lectures as future opportunities. mistakes can teach us how to better serve the future. we should have an optimistic view of the future and at the same time make sure our stance is realistic and consistent. time is ripe for albania to start producing more goods and services than before. despite the admirable progress in this context, the gap is still wide. agriculture and industry remain two important branches of the economy operating far from their potential. additionally, other sectors that have revitalized during the transition years require more orientation and tuning. these measures will enable better diversification of the albanian economy, augmenting its stability with the passing of time. other challenges i believe relate to the country ’ s external position, implying the reduction of current account deficit and the provision of alternative resources of foreign currency inflows. therefore, i think that the role of the state needs to be more pronounced, not only in terms of completing the legal and regulatory basis but also of concluding a number of important structural reforms, in particular those related to the land, ownership titles, pensions, to the support of the small and medium - size business, to the further improvement of business environment and the ongoing upgrade of national infrastructure. the further strengthening of safety nets, in the context of a stable fiscal and financial position, is an obligation whose accomplishment would reduce both the real and perceived risk of the albanian economy, hence creating incentives for the growth of domestic and foreign investments. time is ripe for the state budget to involve the participation of private entrepreneurs in strategic investment projects through joint financing programmes. the banking system plays a vital role. banking loan has played a key role in albania ’ s economic development. it has been a source of profit in your business and it has