EUROPEAN AFFAIRS

By Misa Brkic

Corridor 10 has not yet been built not because Serbia did not have money but because it did not have manager who would have organised the job for such an important infrastructure project.

Admitting this at the Centre of Liberal-Democratic Studies conference dedicated to previous transition results, Minister of Economy and Regional Development Mladjan Dinkic wanted to point out the education and human resources problem as the key determinants of the forthcoming economic reforms second phase. Extremely wishing to make this issue as imposing as possible, Minister Dinkic informed public that the Serbian Government would engage foreign manager for the Corridor 10 construction and give him yearly salary of 100,000 euros. "It is time the Serbian citizens realise that people who are experts in deficient but necessary professions can earn a lot of money", said Dinkic on that occasion.

That statement did not get local public proper respect; media treated it as a low profile phenomenon although it was one of the crucial announcements of the Serbian transition.

Minister`s intention was to point out two facts in such an important gathering. First, more and more strangers will get jobs in Serbia, even in the sphere of public services, unless educational system starts "producing" profiles of experts needed in the country that is emerging out of transition. Second, the state will pay those "workers", in terms of current local conditions, very high salaries.

Anyway, there are some thousand foreign experts already working in Serbian private companies and banks and their yearly salaries considerably surpass the sum Minister Dinkic has mentioned. There are also local experts who work in Serbian subsidiaries of foreign companies and earn pretty solid wages in terms of European conditions. As an example very often is cited the case of a lady manager who has conceptualised the redesign of a well-known food brand product and thus made her bank account richer for 200,000 euros at the end of the year.

The news makes an announcement that, in the second phase of economic reforms, i.e., approaching the European integration, the state also will enter the race with the private sector regarding employment and paying experts for important jobs.

Dinkic`s statement regarding the Corridor 10 has just one imperfection that could be considered lapse under certain conditions. Mentioned sum of 100,000 euros per year could hardly be a lure that could attract any quality manager to organise and bring the construction of the remaining part of the motorway through Serbia to the end. One could rather say point is in the salary of one million euros per year since those are sums good experts are getting and then only could the sum be attractive and serve as a guarantee the Corridor 10 would be finally constructed.

By the intonation of the announcement, one could understand Minister Dinkic intentionally made a lapse in order not to overly irritate unprepared public. Maybe modest sum of 100,000 euros would only be the "overture" to definite ushering Serbia into the European labour market, and one million euros salary per year for the Corridor 10 manager is in fact the right sum that the state of Serbia is ready to give in order to finally get the key European traffic corridor.

Is the Serbian public ready to "swallow" one million euros salary per year for one manager?

Instead of an answer, we are offering new question - what is the cost of not having finished the construction of Corridor 10 even after eight years?

Well, it is time the Serbian public starts thinking in European way. Not only about the prices but also of benefits for the state.

In that context we could also, say, observe the intention of Serbia to "push" one of its companies, Telekom, into the London and Belgrade stock exchanges. For the company`s presentation preparation the state has engaged one of the well-known consulting firms and for that job it has paid certain amount of money.

The state could have acted different way as well. For example, it could have "bought" in the European labour market one of highly esteemed telecommunications managers, and make special "transition deadline" and "transfer" with extremely high yearly salary for such an expert. Besides getting the best telecommunication manager, in the European ambiance Serbia would have also presented itself well as a state that nourishes knowledge and personnel competition. In cases both of the Corridor 10 and Telekom there would have been achieved exceptionally important effect for the future of the country. For the young in Serbia the state would have sent a message that it was worth studying and being educated since it also (and not only private employers) was ready to offer high earnings for high quality experts.

That readiness to reward knowledge, quality, and competence in the state, where still highly rated are professions of criminals and sponsor-girls, would be one of the key transitional reforms since in question is the change, i.e., Europeanisation of the Serbian society values system.