Competitiveness and Investments Department

Dušan has been dealing with regulatory reforms in the field of public administration and economic development since 2001. He has cooperated with NALED in various roles, ever since the organization was established, currently as Economy and Good Governance Advisor. He took part in devising the concept and realizing NALED's Grey Book, the campaign Ask When, the Regulatory Index of Serbia and the Business Friendly Certification in South East Europe. Some of the reforms where he had one of the leading roles refer to the issues of real estate registration, construction permitting, abolishing para-fiscal charges, labor legislation, property taxation, land use and development fees, decentralization and strengthening the authorities and capacities of local governments. He is a member of multiple working groups established by the Government and line ministries, including the Joint Group for Improving Serbia's Position in the World Bank's Doing Business List. From 2018 to early 2019 he was a senior expert in business legislation for the Serbia Investment Climate project by IFC as part of the World Bank Group. Prior to this, he was a Business Policy and Economic Governance Director in USAID Business Enabling Project (USAID BEP), and later served as the Deputy Chief of Party for the same project. From 2002 to 2010 he led policy teams in USAID projects dealing with decentralization and local economic development. From 2001 he was Project Director in the Public Administration and Local Government Center (PALGO). He has a PhD degree in economics, a Magister degree in local economic development, and he graduated from the Faculty o Political Sciences in Belgrade. He was a Visiting Fellow at the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy from Boston, USA, and Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Political Sciences. His expert and scientific works have been published in Serbian, English and Spanish.

Marko is an economist with more than 10 years of experience in major domestic and international organizations, in domains of economic research, banking and academia. He has earned his PhD degree on the subject of ‘’Factors of regional competitiveness’’ at the University of Nice Sophia Antipolis in 2015, as well as the master’s degree on the subject of ‘’Role of corruption in FDI attraction – case of Central and East European countries’’ at the same university in 2010. He has joined NALED in 2021, in the role of Head of competitiveness unit, after having spent two years as senior economist in CEVES, and in parallel as a Serbian national consultant with UN Department of Social and Economic Affairs. Beforehand, Marko spent seven years in banking, of which two in role of the asset liability manager and five as macroeconomist in Addiko bank. Apart from this, Marko regularly holds lectures in macroeconomics and finance at some of masters programs of the University of Nice, as well as on programs of the Mokra Gora school of management. He has authored a significant number of studies, analyses and scientific articles in Serbia and abroad. Marko speaks English and French fluently.

Jasmina graduated from the Faculty of Law, University in Belgrade, the International Law department in 2001, after completing the I Belgrade Gymnasium. As part of the second generation of the Faculty of Law in Belgrade, in 2002 she specialized in European Union legislation within an international program organized in cooperation with the European University of Nancy. Early work engagement in the area of finance encouraged Jasmina to continue post-graduate studies at the Faculty of Law in the Commercial Law department, earning a Magister cum laude degree in 2005 with the thesis “Fusion of companies in Yugoslavia and the EU”. Crowning her knowledge and experience in various areas of law, she passed the national judicial exam in 2007 before the Ministry of Justice, and the bar exam in 2016 before the Belgrade Chamber of Lawyers. From 2013 to 2016 she engaged in research work for a PhD thesis in the field of commercial crimes. She attended English course in London in 2001. Parallel with professional development programs, she has been building a years-long career in the banking sector. From 2002 to 2010 she gained priceless work experience in as Legal Affairs Coordinator in Srpska Banka, moving to the position of Assistant Director in Jubmes bank in 2010, and later the Legal Affairs Director. She has been a member of NALED team since October 2017 dealing with policy reform (Law on Registration in the Real Estate and Utility Lines Cadaster, Law on Fees for Use of Public Goods, Insolvency Law, Company Law, Law on Public Procurement, Law on Litigation Procedure etc.), coordinating the activities regarding the World Bank's Doing Business report, being a part of working groups and projects (for elimination of stamps, urban and rural land consolidation, optimization of procedures, informal employment etc.) and coordinating the work of Property and Investment Alliance and BFC Club. 

Irena completed bachelor studies in Journalism at the Faculty of Political Sciences in Belgrade as the best student in her generation, and later the multidisciplinary Master studies in Terrorism, Organized Crime Security at the University in Belgrade. She is a scholar of the Young Talents Fund – Dositeja, the Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development, the Education Secretariat of the City of Belgrade and the Konrad Adenauer Foundation. She joined NALED in January 2016 as an intern in NALED's Communications department, later moving to the position of Researcher in NALED's Policy department, where she works on collecting and processing data for a variety of NALED's projects and activities (desk research, interviews, focus groups, internal workshops), developing policy briefs and studies using various methods of analysis (comparative analysis, cost simulation, impact analysis, standard cost method). She is the author of Analysis on Tax and non-Tax Burden to Start-Ups and participated in the development of several policy briefs dealing with taxation, shadow economy, cashless payments, the position of youth at risk etc. She speaks English and Italian. 

Oliver has worked for many years as an economic development specialist at a senior management level on European projects through the CIM Integrated Experts program. All of these projects were located within local economic development agencies / Chambers of Commerce and Industry and focused on an analysis of potential business development issues and opportunities. In addition to the agency-driven understanding of economics, Oliver has practical first-hand knowledge of the private sector - as Country Manager for a trading company, he was responsible for the expansion of the business logistics, purchasing and sales for distribution and retail activities. Oliver is highly experienced in business accompaniment for potential business expansions thanks to the broad-ranging experience with the German Chambers of Industry and Commerce in Singapore, Czech Republic and Australia. Previous to NALED’s engagement, Oliver was employed as a Regional Director General of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry office in the county of Altenkirchen, the third largest county industrial base in the state of Rhineland-Palatinate, with 8,000 companies.

Adis graduated from the Faculty of Law at the University of Belgrade and passed Bar Examination at the Ministry of Justice of Serbia. Throughout seventeen years of work experience, he worked as a law clerk and then as a lawyer in the civil matter, labor relations, contractual relations and business law contracts, as well as in the field of foreign trade turnover. From 2001 he worked as an internal auditor to implement the application of regulations, rules and procedures of USAID, DAI and implementation of project activities of USAID's project SLGRP dealing with the reform of local government. During a period of five years, he worked as an Internal auditor and HR Manager in USAID's MEGA project that dealt with local economic development, being engaged in the process of drafting rules and procedures, and implementing labor legislation and regulations of positive law. Joined NALED from September 2011 where he is engaged mostly in monitoring and promoting regulatory reforms relevant for businesses and business improvement, and monitoring the process of adopting relevant by-laws. He also worked on human resources and contracting tasks, and since 2015 he has been dealing with electronic construction permitting, the unified permitting procedure and the work of Call Center for the implementation of the Law on Planning and Construction.

Ana completed graduate and master studies at the Faculty of Political Sciences, earning the title of Master Politicologist for International Relations - module International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights Law. She was the winner of the national and a participant of the world competition in the field of international humanitarian law. She participated in numerous seminars and education programs in the country and abroad. Before NALED, she gained professional experience in international SFV Consulting Group as an Intern for international development, and she also has experience in insurance, where she worked as Assistant Underwriter for two years. She is interested in state and international affairs, currently working in NALED as Policy Assistant for projects regarding e-government. She speaks English and French.

Nikola is a law graduate who has been employed by the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Serbia since December 2014. He spent three years at the Center for Support to Investment and Public Private Partnership as an expert associate for public private partnership. After that, he worked at the Economic Matters Centre for a year as an advisor in the field of labor law and state aid. For the last two years, he has been engaged in the Innovation Department as an independent advisor for innovations, where he provided information on funding, regulations and participated in activities for the development of the innovation ecosystem in Serbia. He completed his undergraduate studies at the Faculty of Law, University of Novi Sad in 2011. After that, he successfully completed two masters - European Law at the Faculty of Law of the Union University in Belgrade in 2015 and Public Procurement Management at the University of Tor Vergata in Rome in 2014 as an EBRD scholarship holder. From March 2021, he was hired by NALED as the coordinator for regulatory reform. He is fluent in English and German, and speaks basic French and Portuguese. He is currently in the second year of doctoral studies at the Faculty of Law, University of Belgrade, majoring in administrative law.

Jelena graduated from the Faculty of Law at the University of East Sarajevo. During her student days, she was active in the NGO sector through membership and active work in a youth organization. She gained her first work experience in the profession while doing an internship at the Kastratović Law Office in Belgrade. After a two-year internship, she got a job at the "Branko Ćopić" elementary school in Belgrade, in the position of lawyer-secretary, where she performed all the legal tasks necessary for the functioning of this institution. She also worked as a lawyer-secretary at the Institute for the Education of Children and Youth in Belgrade, where, in addition to managing the general affairs department, she conducted public procurement procedures, drew up contracts, kept staff and personnel records of employees and all other necessary legal tasks. Jelena is engaged in the Unit for Property and Investments as an Associate for Regulatory Reform.  

Nevena completed Bachelor studies at the Faculty of Political Science, University of Belgrade, within the department of Politicology. She gained her first work experience in the municipality of Cukarica, in the Property, Legal and Housing Affairs department, being engaged as an intern. She spent two and a half years at the civil society organization Crta - Center for Research, Transparency and Accountability, working on improvement of the transparency, openness and participation of the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia through the Open Parliament Initiative. She is an alumni of Crta's Academy for Democracy and OSCE Dialogue Academy for Young Women. She was a short-term observer at the Croatian president elections and at the elections for councilors for the Assembly of the City of Belgrade. She speaks English. Nevena joined the NALED team in June 2021 as an associate within the Entrepreneurship and Investments department.

Iilja graduated from the Faculty of Political Sciences of the University of Belgrade and earned a degree in political science for international affairs. During his studies, he started volunteering and doing internships in the non-governmental sector in Serbia. He had the opportunity to participate in the Winter School "Sustainability of Political Systems in Eurasia", organized by the Moscow State University "Lomonosov", and as part of a regional program he also stayed at the Faculty of Political Sciences of the University of Zagreb. He interned at the Youth Initiative for Human Rights and the Center for Geostrategic Research and Terrorism. Ilija joined the NALED team as an intern engaged in analytical and assistance tasks in the domain of digitization within the Department for Regulatory Reform. 

Dušan graduated from the Faculty of Political Sciences, majoring in international relations, and he is currently studying for a master's degree at the Faculty of Economics in Belgrade. During his studies, he was a collaborator on projects of the Association for the United Nations of Serbia, such as the Coffee Dialogue, Youth Delegates of Serbia to the United Nations, and numerous workshops and conferences. Dušan is engaged in analytical and assistance tasks as an intern within the Department for Regulatory Reform. He joined the NALED team in December 2021.

Iva completed her basic and master's studies in spatial planning at the Faculty of Geography, University of Belgrade. During her studies, she attended professional internships at the Public Company for Development of Building Land (City of Kraljevo) and the Directorate for Waterways (Ministry of Construction, Transport and Infrastructure of the Republic of Serbia). After the expert meeting of spatial planners held in Austria in 2015, with a group of students, she published the work "Protection of nature and the natural environment of Austria". She started her first job in 2018 at the Republic Geodetic Institute as a team member on the project Updating the Address Register After that, she worked in the Ministry of Construction, Transport and Infrastructure, in the Directorate for Waterways, as a GIS administrator and planning analyst in the Department for providing information on the state of waterways, river information services, planning and implementation of international projects. She participated in many trainings conducted by the National Academy of Public Administration (NAPA): "IPA II - Project Management Group", "Planning of IPA Funds and National Participation", "Public Policy", etc. Iva joined the NALED team as a regulatory reform intern in the Property and Investments Unit.

Jovana graduated from the Faculty of Political Sciences, majoring in international relations. During her studies, she was a member of the School of Sustainable Development and Ecology" - CEDEM and a member of the BIMUN (Belgrade International Model United Nations) conference in the Economic and Social Committee. Jovana peaks 3 languages ​​perfectly: English, French and Italian. She wants to develop her work experience and knowledge in a progressive and innovative system that contributes to the improvement of the business environment in Serbia. She joined the NALED team as an Intern for Regulatory Reform.

Jelena came to our Organisation through the „Get Balkanized“ program on a four-month internship. Jelena is studying Sustainable Social Policy at Bonn-Rhein-Sieg University, which is based in North/Rhine/Westphalia, Germany. During her studies she improved skills in politics, economics and communication, while her main career goal is to contribute to social equality and equal opportunity of chances for each country. She joined the NALED team in April 2023 as a Intern for Regulatory Reform.