SINISA KRNETA, CEO, THE BELGRADE STOCK EXCHANGE: "Cooperation needs to seek turning local investors into regional ones"

The Belgrade Stock Exchange (Serbia) wishes to be part of the regional cooperation process in Central and Eastern Europe, says CEO Sinisa Krneta, who thinks that players actors in the region need to identify solutions to strengthen this collaboration - either a coalition, or by another form of horizontal integration.

Sinis Krneta points out: "For a regional cooperation between the stock exchanges in Central and Eastern Europe, the common infrastructure approach, new investment alternatives and common promotion are needed. Such cooperation should focus on transforming local investors into regional investors. Political decision-makers who establish what the ecosystem should look like should help local, national level investors. The approaches of policies in the sector should be spiral-shaped: we work for the region, and the region works in our favor".

Sinisa Krneta also says: "Lately, initiatives have emerged to influence political decision-makers. The capital market faced a very rapid development of technology, in parallel with the globalization process. Digitalization has become a crucial process, and any challenge brings with itself and an opportunity that can be capitalized upon. We, those in the region, have been able to respond well to the challenges in the past. Now there are several ongoing initiatives, some of which will be successful".

The Belgrade official stresses, however, that the capital market is an engine for driving the growth of a country's economy, and in this context, the development of a strategy in the field is a basic condition for any emerging capital market.