06.03.2015.
Presentation of the Draft Law on Production and Trade in Arms and Military Equipment
In a public hearing on the Draft Law on production and trade in arms and military equipment, which has been held today in the Serbian Chamber of Commerce, the key innovations of the proposed legislative solutions were presented.Representatives of several ministries, businesses operators involved in the production of arms and military equipment, trade union organizations, professionals and other interested parties had the opportunity to present a critical review of the suggested solutions and contribute to the regulation of this area.
The discussion was marked by a constructive dialogue in order to improve regulation in the defence industry sector and help to overcome the current problems hampering the business of manufacturers of arms and military equipment.
The debate was an opportunity to once again send a clear signal to all interested parties to submit their comments, proposals and suggestions for creating a modern and sustainable legislative framework.
In the discussion it was pointed out that the new law aims to control and improve production and trade in arms and military equipment to ensure and protect the defence, security, economic and foreign policy interests of the Republic of Serbia, its international credibility and integrity.
The main reasons for the adoption of the new law are the establishment of an integrated legal framework that provides a stable control mechanism in the field of production and trade in arms and military equipment, more complete definition of concepts and their uniformity in all regulations of the subject area, harmonisation with the regulations of the UN, EU and other international agreements and conventions and creation of a more flexible framework for the share of foreign capital in the ownership structure.Key innovations in the draft law: it gives the possibility for a foreign legal entity to be a majority owner of the company registered for production of arms and military equipment, the Republic of Serbia, in the event of privatization of a manufacturer of arms and military equipment of strategic interest for the national security system, retains a controlling stake, defines the legal framework for preservation of capacities - technologies, special equipment and tools for the production of arms and military equipment, the validity of the license for the production of arms and military equipment is limited to the term of 5 years, establishing control over the use of intellectual property rights through the mechanism of royalties and strengthening the role of the military quality control.
The proposed legal solutions create an environment for strengthening technological and industrial base of the Republic of Serbia in the field of defence technologies and initiate the need for acquiring modern and sophisticated technologies.
The concrete example of cooperation between the Ministry of Defence and the Serbian Chamber of Commerce confirmed once again the good and successful coordination in the implementation of the activities of common interest. This is an incentive for participation in new similar ventures, the more so as it is at the level of the Chamber that the Group of manufacturers of arms and military equipment that operates within the Association for the metal industry and electrical industry, metal mining and metallurgy has an active role, the engagement of which is expected to result in expanding the cooperation with the countries of the former Yugoslavia in the field of arms and military equipment because the products of the Serbian defence industries represent a respectable export potential.Draft Law on production and trade in arms and military equipment prepared by the Ministry of Defence, in accordance with its responsibilities.
Joint body for monitoring and improvement of legislation in the field of production, trade, import and export of controlled goods, constituted in early 2013 of representatives of the Ministry of Trade, Tourism and Telecommunications, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Interior, Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Defence, Ministry of Finance and the Security and Intelligence Agency had an active role during the work on the preparation and development of the Draft Law. Representatives of management and trade union organizations from Serbian defence industry companies gave a number of useful suggestions and proposals.
Public hearing on the Draft Law is being held from 2nd to 23rd March 2015, according to the of Public Debate Programme adopted by the Committee for Economy and Finance of the Government of the Republic of Serbia.
