Unleashing the potential of the small and medium enterprise sector in Serbia

This article focusses on the economic aspects of the private sector, on the macroeconomic environment as well as on the empirical evidence of the privatisation process and small and medium enterprises (SME) development in Serbia. The author finds that the private sector is characterised by low competitiveness, an impeded access to finance sources and an undeveloped financial market. Moreover, chronical insolvency, an inadequate labour market structure, an uneven regional distribution, an inefficient legislature, a burden of administrative procedures and a high rate of corruption in the administration make an impact on employing the potential of the SME sector in Serbia. Therefore, it is not realistic to expect that all the potentials of this sector will be well employed in the near future