The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), the European Investment Bank (EIB) and the World Bank Group (WBG) are starting a new cycle of surveying companies in over 40 countries, including Serbia. The aim of the research is to gather information from private sector companies about the business environment in each country and use it to assess the potentials and the limits to the growth of the private sector. In each country, the survey will be conducted through interviews with private companies in the production and service sectors.
In Serbia, Ipsos has been put in charge of collecting the data. Interviews with randomly picked companies will start in November 2018 and last through May 2019, and preliminary results are expected to be available in the second half of 2019. The results will serve as a basis for analyses aiming to help identify the ways to improve investments, productivity and economic growth in the countries covered by the survey.
This research is similar to that carried out by the World Bank in countries throughout the world, applying the standard methodology. The topics covered – productivity, adoption of technologies and innovations, competition, workforce qualification, shadow economy, access to financial services, infrastructure and the influence of state regulations – will be comparable on a global level. The survey will also include a module pertaining to “green economy”.
The new survey cycle encompasses over 40 countries in Europe, central Asia, the Middle East and north Africa.