Awarded NALED Arrows to Oliver Šarov and Nataša Radović
Economic Advisor at the Delegation of the European Union to Serbia, Oliver Šarov and Deputy Program Director at the British Embassy in Serbia, Nataša Radović are the recipients of the 2025 NALED Arrow Award. The awards were presented by members of the NALED Managing Board – Saša Marković, General Manager of Coca-Cola HBC, and Goran Kovačević, Founder and Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Gomex – in the presence of 300 NALED members and partners at the ceremonial closing of the association's 19th Annual Assembly.
The NALED Arrow is special recognition awarded annually to key partners from the international community for their contribution to improving Serbia’s business environment through cooperation with NALED.
Oliver Šarov has been actively supporting reform processes in Serbia for over a decade. As a political and economic advisor, first at the British and later at the Dutch embassy, he recognized and supported NALED’s initiatives that stimulate the development of the domestic economy and attract new investments. He backed the work of the Government’s Coordination Body on improving Serbia’s position on the World Bank’s Doing Business list and implementing reforms that placed Serbia among the world’s top 10 countries. He also contributed to the fight against the shadow economy by strengthening inspection bodies and their cooperation with misdemeanor courts.
Today, through EU institutions, he continues to support Serbia on its European path. He has participated in public-private dialogue and in defining concrete measures for Serbia’s Reform Agenda, which is part of the Western Balkans Growth Plan. In this regard, his advocacy for the reform of parafiscal charges—through the introduction of electronic payments for all fees and charges—is particularly significant, as it will finally bring full transparency and predictability to all non-tax burdens for both citizens and businesses in Serbia.
Nataša Radović has made a substantial contribution in recent years to the development of entrepreneurship, women’s economic empowerment, and digitalization in Serbia. In cooperation with NALED, she launched significant changes for small businesses—from the development of the Small Business Info Guide, now used by 330,000 entrepreneurs, to the establishment of the Small Business Council and the launch of grant programs for women entrepreneurs under the Strong and Important project. As a pioneer in the field of digital transformation in our country, she contributed to the creation of a paperless administration.
She also played a key role in positioning Serbia within the European biotechnology community—supporting the networking of domestic research institutions with UK universities and research organizations such as Oxford, Imperial College London, the biomedical campus in Cambridge, and the global R&D center of AstraZeneca. She helped several exceptional young people from Serbia earn the opportunity to pursue master's studies in London through the prestigious Chevening Scholarship, with the aim of transferring knowledge and best practices from the UK back to Serbia.
This year’s NALED Arrow recipients are a true example of how vision, personal commitment, and joint effort can create a synergistic effect and contribute to sustainable societal change for the benefit of all.
