Ljubisa Adamovic, professor of the international economy - Not even Tito could not help us now

Source: eKapija Tuesday, 19.08.2014. 10:07
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(Ljubisa Adamovic)

Serbia is in a difficult economicsituation. It is in a situation as if it were a difficult patient, difficult tofind a doctor. There is not even a cure which can be a kind of a panacea or asolution for everything. We cannot even set our priorities easily because thereare so many burning issues

And it would not be fair to judgeupon any Government or anybody for not being able to find good and fastsolutions, Ljubisa Adamovic, professor and Phd says at the beginning of his interview for eKapija.

Professor Adamovic is one of our biggest experts in international economicrelations and a professor for years at the American Florida State University inTallahassee, as well as a regular retired professor at the University inBelgrade. Now, he is a dean of postgraduate and PhD studies at the Europeancenter for peace and development (ECPD) of the UN University for peace, withlectures at the Faculty of Economics in Belgrade at the subject Internationaleconomic relations.

He lectured in USA on numerous universities: MIT, HarvardUniversity, Columbia (New York), Cornell, Case Western Reserve University(Cleveland, Ohio), UCLA, Berkley, Davis (California) etc.

For a number of decades during which he was acquiring his experience worldwide,having in mind that at the political scene in Serbia it is becoming more commonto see people from the faculties mentioned above (last example- Lazar Krstic),we asked professor Adamovic whether knowledge acquired abroad can be used and transferredin another context?

- Very rarely- almost impossible. You have to know the environment,economical, political, social and psychological. Now former minister Krsticwould not be the last or the first who seemed as if he were dropped down with aparachute in different environment. But the parachute did not open. There wereyoung ministers of finance who were successful. One of them was PhD MilanStojadinovic whose works and estimations of the international positions and relations of Yugoslavia and this region canbe read today as well as very contemporary (Neither war nor pact – a book). I am more surprised with the fact that manypeople accept things for which, apart from having ambition, they are notqualified for.

I would immediately hire Mr. Krstic as an assistant becausehe belongs to a group of educated and perspective people. But, it is difficultfor someone who never worked in business, who started getting salaries from thetax payers’ pockets and state-owned institutions. It is hard for him tounderstand the real position of the workers and employers. You know, you cannotlearn to swim if you did not get into the water. So it is not only difficult, general situationbut also qualification of the ones who work on that. In that sense, Krstic isonly an illustration of numerous company.

Who should run the economy of Serbia?

-I may be single-minded but I thing all economical affairs at the Governmentshould be managed but he ones who proved they can earn, who made businesssuccess. Of course, not everybody from the category either. Someone may be anexcellent manager, an owner on a small space, 10-15 people. That’s not it. But,somebody who set up big corporation , with hundreds or thousands employees –for me, these are the candidate to manage economy. The second ones are smart,self-opinionated, perspective but, I apologize, they do not have a clue withreal economy. They have never sold anything so that somebody would pay for whatthey did. And, everything is worth the money one pays for it.

I do not think to criticize anybody, everybody has the rightto chose or refuse something but it is amatter of personal responsibility and understanding of things – professor Adamovicwho refused the invitation of Milosevic to be the president of the governmentwith an explanation he was not qualified, says. It was, they say, the firstcase somebody says for himself that he is incompetent.

On the other hand, great experience can be a burden as well,our collocutor says.

-From 35 to 60 years of age is the strength which keeps every countrystanding. The second ones can be greenery along with the flowers, no matterwhether they are young or old.

We do not have national consensus

- Serbia now needs a kind of interparty consensus – what wewant form economy and international position of our country. One government cannotsolve this question in two-three years independently from the parties comprised.It takes to set key objectives where all of us can agree. None of the party succeededin it so far, everybody has their own political interests and we lack national consensus.

Tito would not help us either


- Today many recall Tito. It is different time today, he could not do anythingeither. You should not forget that in times of Tito, our country had muchbigger spending standard than productivity. We got used to that. All of it wasnot on real basis of our productivity. We were a tampon zone between the Eastand the West. The Americans found it useful to fund us. Tito’s advantage wasthat he managed to understand it and use it.

International position of Serbia – now and then

When asked about the image of our country a few decades ago, when he startedlecturing in America, and what it is like now, professor Ljubisa Adamovic saysthat neither than nor now, more than 90% of Americans do not know where Serbiais.

-The Americans have materialistic values, they are much less politicized. AnAmerican pays someone in Washington to think about it for him.

How to create better image in the world?

-If we had one or two products sold at all shelves of the markets in Europe,it would be known who and what we are. The success of our sportsmen in theworld could help also. Djokovic is a big phenomenon; I only hope we will notspend him quickly. He has an image of super sportsmen and noble personality andif we manage to keep him, Djokovic can be an important personality for thefuture of Serbia.

External policy

- I think we should support orientation towards good relations both with EU andRussia. The Russian market is a potential capital and we should keep privilegesSerbia got from Russia.

- I will go back to Dr. MilanStojadinovic who thinks the two markets are key ones for Serbia – Germany and Italy. Regardless of the regimes and system, these are our natural exists. Now,the Arabs are coming. However, it is essential to know that the Arabs are aprolonged hand of America. They do not everything because they feel like to orwant to. USA influences that. The influence can be positive if loans are usedproperly. But, to use funds for Belgrade on water – we will all be under waterthen.

If anybody had asked me for an advice, I would not recommend this project,especially knowing that the project changes the Urban plan in a day.

Economical b ranches with the biggest potential in Serbia

- Everybody talks about agriculture. I think that small households andagriculture will not drag Serbia out. Serbia must produce more engineers thanlegal experts and economists, to decrease bureaucracy. There are no business decisions without risks.We need cooperation with big multinational companies as to all other smallcountries. It is true it is risk but theonly way to avoid risk is not to step into the work.

Agriculture is important but it willnot be able to take us out with this workforce, with aged population.Agriculture should be made attractive and perspective for young people, not toleave villages.

And how could we attract multinational companies?

- We can do it only with developed country, stab ile legal framework, geopoliticalposition, and privileged position with respect to Russian market. We could alsoproduce or assemble so that the product can legally be Made in Serbia.

America cannot be orienteer

- America was the first that stepped into crisis and America is the first toget away from it. Why? Because it is dynamic. Because it is cruel. Europeancapitalism is relatively humanized and the American far less.

The Americans are neither more cultural nor more educated than we arebasically. They just have system which provides positive incentives to behaveas planned within the legal order. I have parked only once in the wrong way inAmerica and I learned a lesson for a lifetime. The system should make people todo right. And, people are not stupid. They are the most sensitive when you hittheir pocket. Let education… Penalties bring order so quickly and I fullysupport the statement of President Truman when he said a man is extremelysensitive being and the most sensitive nerve of a man is in his pocket. You eitherreward someone to have satisfaction or punish him to learn faster.

The Serbs are not lazy at all. The best example for it is the fact that abroadit is hard to find our man, from the top intellectual to a worker, who did notsucceed in its business, in foreign country. We have ambition, strength,self-confidence, creativity and it should be used with the properlegal-economical system. It is not logical to invite our citizens to get backfrom abroad and here there is no work for those who are here either. The Governmentmust be careful of what it asks for and promises.

Jelena Djelic

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