Up until 2016, Serbia had completely disorganized procedures for issuing building permits, and people had to wait a long time for them. There were cases where in certain municipalities, the waiting time was as long as 7-8 years. The process was highly imprecise and unregulated, with a lot of discretionary decisions made by those issuing the permits. The key issue that hadn’t been resolved was the ownership rights on the construction land. Citizens did not have disputes over this, and they could acquire ownership rights over land, but a specific category of legal entities in the private sector had to pay a fee for this. The new, unified permit issuance procedure brought a boom and completely changed the situation. The Government of Serbia is now very close to deciding to amend or completely abolish the law, allowing businesses to acquire ownership rights over construction land without any fees. This would free up large complexes in attractive locations and enable construction on these sites,” stated Aleksandra Damnjanović, State Secretary of the Ministry of Construction, Transport, and Infrastructure of Serbia, during a panel discussion on the importance of resolving property issues in real estate for improving competitiveness and investment conditions in the Western Balkans.
She emphasized that the introduction of the unified procedure was the biggest achievement in creating a favorable business environment. All submissions and issuance of administrative and non-administrative acts in this procedure are now in electronic form. The consequences of this change have activated a significant sector. “Construction was, until then, in a very poor state, even though it had previously achieved great results. Unemployment in this sector was high, and wages were low. All of that has changed, and many areas have been activated because construction ‘drags’ 21 other economic sectors. In the most recent Doing Business ranking, Serbia was 9th in the world out of 189 countries. Not long before that, in 2014, Serbia was ranked an ‘excellent’ 186th, with only countries experiencing civil wars behind us,” Damnjanović said.
According to her, the greatest resistance to reform was in people’s minds, which is why good preparation was essential. The law was worked on for two years, and this was preceded by a large analysis from which proposals were derived, and poor solutions were prevented. “When you tell someone who might not even have internet access and uses a pen and paper that from tomorrow, they must work only electronically, it creates resistance. It was necessary to talk to people. The state involved many smart and skilled people. NALED played a big part in the entire process, and there were also colleagues from the cadaster and other authorities. Everything was discussed and debated, and we reached a satisfactory solution,” concluded Damnjanović.
Borko Drašković, Director of the Republic Geodetic Authority, speaking about the reform of the institution, emphasized that the services in the cadaster were poorly organized in the past, and the actions of other authorities and institutions were also of low quality.
“We had inconsistent practices from courts and local governments. When we acted on their orders, the result was that the scale was skewed because someone was overweight, and we had poor practice. It wasn’t the cadaster’s fault, but rather those who had non-standardized the determination of property rights. This is the biggest issue we face today. Thanks to NALED, the Ministry of Construction, and other partners, we entered the amendment of laws and procedures. We entered the digitalization process and developed a new procedural scheme. The biggest challenge is resolving issues that have been ‘locked away in drawers’. People have acquired rights, but no longer have suitable documentation for registration in the cadaster. These are cases that have become harder to resolve over time, and these locations are blocked for investment. Under the new business process, we resolve cases within five days at the first level and within two months at the second level,” Drašković said.
He added that the new procedure in the cadaster is a global success that is being studied by the UN and other organizations. “We have developed 28 services from 2015 to today. We visited all successful cadaster systems in Europe. The Macedonian cadaster was especially helpful. We connected with over 300 local governments and other bodies, and this is now the largest digital platform in the world with the largest dataset, all achieved without resistance from employees,” Drašković concluded.
Dušica Perišić, Director of the Community of Local Self-Governments of North Macedonia, emphasized that her country has long been a role model for the region and has implemented numerous successful reforms, mainly with its own resources, which she considers the best approach for development.
“Our administration was the same as the rest of the Balkans, and going through procedures could take a long time, often missing deadlines. We arrived at good solutions after a long process of analysis and thoughtful planning. Now, we have electronic systems in many areas, such as electronic building permits, a system for land transactions, and others – all of which, in addition to Serbia, have been adopted by Albania,” said Perišić.
She noted that for reforms to succeed, it is essential to have support from the central government and for this level of government to understand why certain actions need to be taken. “Only the determination of people to make a change brings positive results. Both central and local authorities need to collaborate on this task,” Perišić added.
Adelina Fariči, Executive Director of the Albanian Association of Local Self-Governments, stated that Albania has made significant progress in implementing electronic services and continually adds new ones. As many as 93% of citizens are satisfied with their quality. Like North Macedonia and Serbia, Albania has completed the introduction of electronic building permits and eliminated the submission of a variety of paper documents.
“We no longer have physical contact with citizens and businesses. Not only are we able to treat all citizens equally, but we also avoid abuses and corruption. Citizens no longer need to waste time going from one counter to another. They are now only required to submit the most important documents. The number of system users has increased, and we had to train employees and coordinate central and local authorities. We quickly achieved results. Building permits are now issued by authorities closest to the citizens. We can now resolve requests in a short period,” said Fariči.
She added that challenges remain, such as the lack of planning documents, particularly general and detailed urban planning, as some municipalities have areas not covered by plans. Another ongoing issue is the shortage of qualified personnel, as well as the lack of funding for everything that has been planned.