Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Trade, Tourism, and Telecommunications Rasim Ljajić has said early today that the CEFTA Agreement should be improved by forming a common economic area, warning that lorries are still waiting at the border crossings from seven to forty-eight hours.

“Average stay of lorries in Georgia is only seven minutes. Also, we are wasting twenty-six million hours a year because the lorries wait at border crossings, according to the IMP data. Around 800 million euros are paid for various types of services at those border crossings, justified or unjustified, which is one per cent of the GDP of the countries in the region”, says Mr Ljajić.

In the gathering “CEFTA Week 2017”, Minister underlined that CEFTA countries must make a decision if we will wait for the politics to solve all our problems, and then start tackling them, or we will do something for the businessmen.
“We can’t keep hiding the problem, but search for the solution for the businessmen”, concluded Mr Ljajić.

The meeting is organised by the Ministry of Trade, Tourism, and Telecommunications of Serbia, CEFTA Secretariat and Serbia Chamber of Commerce.

CEFTA Week is held from 21st to 24th November in Belgrade.