NALED publishes Gray Book of Innovations

On 20 April 2022, NALED, Philip Morris, and the Serbian Government held a conference to present the first Gray Book of Innovations, which aims to help improve the business environment for innovative and high-tech entrepreneurs. The event was attended by staff of Vuković & Partners.

The first edition of the Gray Book of Innovations sets out a total of 60 recommendations, of which 50 seek to improve co-operation between research organisations and businesses, promote tax policies that incentivise start-ups and innovative micro, small, and large companies, modernise labour law applicable to digital entrepreneurs and ensure general legislation and other regulations reflect the needs of these businesses, and foster the development of infrastructure in support of innovation and access to affordable finance.

The Gray Book of Innovations provides the authorities with clear guidelines and recommended solutions for each obstacle encountered by innovators, with the final ten recommendations offering ideas for new tax incentives and grants, including innovation tax credits and electric vehicle subsidies.

The recommendations collected in the Gray Book of Innovations were informed by consultations with a variety of innovative high-tech entrepreneurs, researchers, businesses, institutions, and academics.

Patterned after the Gray Book, which has been published by NALED annually for the past 14 years and contains 100 key recommendations for cutting red tape suggested by businesses, local authorities, and civil society organisations, the Gray Book of Innovations will also appear once every year and is designed to help improve the business environment for innovative and high-tech entrepreneurship.

Studies that led to the creation of the Gray Book of Innovations have revealed just how much potential Serbia has for high-tech development: the country boasts 12,000 researchers, more than 70 research and development institutes, 22 centres of excellence, and 123 universities and faculties. Nevertheless, Serbian investment in research and development amounts to no more than 0.89 percent of GDP, there are as few as 50 patents per one million population (in contrast to the EU average of 230), and fewer than 2 percent of all researchers are employed by businesses (as opposed to 46 percent in the EU). These findings make it clear that Serbia still faces a long journey to reach EU standards, a goal that the Gray Book of Innovations sets out to help achieve.

Video of the Gray Book of Innovations launch event is available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9D9NC4Rz9uA