1st LSEE-CEFTA Workshop

On 29 - 30 June 2018 we held the first LSEE-CEFTA Academic Network Workshop on International Trade, in the Faculty of Economics, University of Belgrade. Dr Will Bartlett from LSE gave the keynote presentation on the Multiannual Action Plan for the Regional Economic Area. We were excited to host Ms Lee Tuthill (WTO), Mr Emir Djikic (Director, CEFTA Secretariat) and representatives of the CEFTA parties (Contact Points), who contributed with their valuable knowledge and comments to the proceedings of the workshop.

The workshop included presentations by members of the Network along 4 key themes (click below for presentations): 

Trade in Services

1. Ivana Prica presented on Quantifying trade barriers in financial services for CEFTA countries.
2. Nina Brankovic presented on Policy options for liberalization of legal framework that regulates recognition of academic qualifications in CEFTA countries.
3. Lee Tuthill (WTO) gave shared her experience and expertise on the issues.

 

Trade Effects

1. Merima Balavac presented the paper on The effect of non-tariff barriers on export of CEFTA member countries.
2. Luca J. Uberti shared his research on Regional Integration, Trade and Development in the Balkans: A Dynamic Poisson Approach.
3. Sanja Mitic presented on Export barriers as perceived by Serbian firms –some lessons for export supporting policies.

 

Customs

1. Martin Mihajlov presented the paper Towards the application of blockchain technology for improving trade facilitation in CEFTA 2006.
2. Liuben Kocev's presentation was on Digitalization and trade facilitation within the CEFTA -2006.
3. Irena Kikerkova shared her expertise and knowledge on The challenge of establishing e-customs within CEFTA-2006: the case of Republic of Macedonia.

 

Investment

1. Besnik Krasniqi's presentation was on A Regional Investment Agenda for the Western Balkans (WB6): avoiding a race to the bottom?
2. Elena Makrevska Disoska presented the Determinants of FDI in the economies of of South-East Europe: Analysis of economic and institutional factors.
3. Azra Brankovic spoke about Foreign direct investments in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

 

We were also happy to see that so many of our members were able to join us in Belgrade, representing academic communities from across the region and beyond. Facilitating exchange of ideas and dialogue among academics, as well as between the academic and policy communicates, is a key objective of our network. As we plan our next meeting (scheduled provisionally for November 2018, in Skopje), we take particular courage by how this successful exchange worked in our 1^st Workshop.

Selected papers from the workshop will be published in our newly established Discussion Papers series in autumn.

We would like to specially thank Dr Ivana Prica, Network Coordinator for Services Issues, and Lazar Colic for their excellent work as local organising committee.