Professor of Applied Economics at the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore Steve H. Hanke stated Friday that at this moment, Serbia's economy is facing the same challenges as 20 years ago, and for them to be tackled, he can put forward the same proposals as in 1990, when he was an advisor of the former Yugoslav government.

At the opening of a forum entitled “ Summer Vivaldi Forum- Forecasting 2012”, Hanke underlined that Serbia's economy is still faced with major structural challenges. For that reason, it is necessary to modernize and restructure it, as well as privatize a number of state-owned companies, he added.

The professor underlined that his proposal envisages privatization of the social insurance system and the use of money gained from privatization of state-owned companies for establishing a private company for social insurance which will be owned by citizens.

He identified the stability of the Serbian currency as the other major challenge that Serbia's economy is presented with.

Hanke said that presently everything is all right, but voiced his concerns over "what would happen tomorrow". The professor suggested that the best solution would be establishment of the currency board, as it was done in Bulgaria in 1997.

He said that would secure the stability of the dinar-euro exchange rate, which is currently on a floating regime, taking into account that Serbia would have 100 percent of its reserves in EUR.

The two-day “Summer Vivaldi Forum- Forecasting 2012” in Mokra Gora, is dedicated to macroeconomic and economic trends significant for business planning in the next year.