The speech of the Deputy Prime Minister Mr. Miroljub Labus given at the Conference on Poverty Reduction in Serbia

Being the only Minister still present, I am given the privilege to close the Conference. Six months ago Miš a (Arandarenko) and Lars (Andre Skari) came to my office and said: “Let's make a PRS Implementation Focal Point in your Office ”. I told them: “That's just what I need now”. However, six months later I believe that I made a good decision when I accepted the initiative, when the Focal Point was established. Also, they are starting to work seriously. The first result is this Conference in Plandi šte.

Still I have to say that I am not too much into «paper work». What we were supposed to do here today – we had to do it. In a way we refreshed the whole idea of the Poverty Reduction Strategy. Many things have been done separately. You heard ministers, Parliament representatives and other participants say that everything that has been done is a part of a same concept, and that the concept just needs to be better coordinated and pushed forward in order to produce tangible results.

The only condition I had for accepting the establishment of the PRS Implementation Focal Point was producing tangible results. The time of Power Point and nice thick books is gone. The only thing that counts is results. I was given a promise, and I can see that some of it has been fulfilled here in Plandiš te as well. I believe that in the months ahead, when we meet and cooperate again, we shall keep talking about concrete results.

Now we have a framework—and the framework is good. This is one of the rare occasions when a new Government does not change the strategy of the previous Government, when everything starts all over again. This means that the Strategy was adopted by the previous Government and we do not intend to change it, because it was prepared in a wide discussion in which all of us took part – representatives of the previous Government, previous ministers, previous MPs, civil society, labor unions and international donors. All together we agreed on some things that certainly bear huge importance for the few years that are to come.

I cannot say how long this Government is going to last. Regardless of how long it is going to last, I would like a next Government to continue this work. For surely not only are the qualitative indicators of economic growth important, but these qualitative as well: it is the change in the quality of life and having as few people living below the poverty line as possible. And at this moment it does not matter whether it is 800.000 or 600.000 people or a million – we know that a significant number of our fellow-citizens lives below the poverty line. They live in various regions of the country, and various policies can prove efficient, and it is our duty to link our activities and policies in order to ensure a better life for them.

I would like to thank you once again. I think that today's conference was very good. There was a good atmosphere, and we proved that an old concept is still useful, that it is still implemented and that in the future there are going to be many more tangible and concrete results. With this message I would like to close the Conference.

Thank you for your attention.

Miroljub Labus, Deputy Prime Minister of the Government of the Republic of Serbia
at the Conference on Poverty Reduction in Serbia,
Plandište, April 22, 2005.