Town Blazes Trail for Economic Revival

For two years now visitors to the town hall in Indjija have been in for a surprise.

Instead of the usual dismal waiting room, with countless unmarked doors, dreary counters and rude staff, visitors walk into a building that looks like a space ship.

It’s not just the furniture that’s different. The staff is, too. Local residents can lodge requests and complaints and complete their business without any of the bureaucratic complications and delays that are all too typical in other towns in the area.

Dragan, a technology expert, is one satisfied customer. Soon after entering the building, he gets all the assistance he needs from local officials in filling out the forms to build and open a small factory for recycling plastic.

"The stretch between Belgrade and Novi Sad has dozens of different outlets suitable for producing and recycling plastic," he said.

"I chose Indjija because the procedures for getting permits are the shortest and the taxes are lowest."

He added, "In 15 minutes we worked out which documents I need and another half hour is all I need with the help of the officials to fill out the forms and send them to the right address.

"I wouldn’t get service like this anywhere else."

Dragan is one of hundreds of small entrepreneurs who have shifted their business to Indjija over the last few years, largely because the local authorities do their best to smooth the way. The waiting time for building permits varies from a few days to three weeks, while many other transactions can be completed in minutes.

That is hardly the case in most Serbian towns where paperwork for planning permission can take months, and applicants have to go from one office to another collecting various documents.

Indjija is a smallish town of some 49,000 inhabitants, lying half way between Belgrade and Novi Sad.

Power is held locally by a coalition comprising the Democratic Party, DS, the Democratic Party of Serbia, DSS, the Movement of Serbian Forces and a local civil group, Best for Indjija. The main opposition party is the hard-line nationalist Serbian Radical Party, SRS, and the mayor, for the second time since 2000, is Goran Jesic, leader of Best for Indjija.

After the fall of the Milosevic regime in 2000, the first thing the new authorities tackled was the town hall’s appearance. The building was given a makeover and the administration completely reorganised.

The reception area is air-conditioned and fully fitted out with computers, courtesy of a deal with Microsoft in 2004 to completely computerise the local authority and link it up to the internet.

Under the deal, a system was installed similar to one in New York, enabling residents to see where their money is going and also check on the progress of requests for planning permission, or other matters. They can use the online system to report complaints as well as be informed of their resolution.

Though only a small-sized town, Indjija is well located to attract investors, lying on the highway known as Corridor 10, close to Belgrade airport.

Land here goes for half the price it fetches in the cities and the town has well developed water, waste disposal and gas utilities.

Foreign businesses have already shown their approval by investing 120 million euro into the town.

The fruits of this include a new cigarette factory, which cost 60 million euro, and a Slovene-owned Merkator shopping centre, comprising 7,000 square metres, which is currently being completed at a cost of seven million euro.

On the outskirts, where a hot spring until last year served as a popular picnic spot, a luxury spa complex will soon arise, built by the Slovene firm Terme Chatezz.

Together the local council and the Slovenes will invest about 45 million euro into the 30-hectare complex, which will include indoor and outdoor pools, two four-star hotels, a congress hall and a golf course.

Miroljub Sadzakovic, owner of Gas-Teh, a firm producing equipment for gas installations, says Indjija’s proximity to Serbia’s two main cities is the main pull for investors.

"What I found here was an exceptionally well equipped industrial zone and favourably priced business premises," he said.

"Besides that, the local authorities enabled me to get all the papers I needed in an incredibly short time."

He added, "It’s also important that Indjia has a large pool of skilled tradesmen of all types and levels. That’s crucial for every investor."

The municipality’s success is also down to their readiness to help potential investors obtain credits from banks and funds.

Although the little town is developing fast, not all local inhabitants are delighted by the pace of progress.

The most frequent objections concern the locals’ continuing low standard of living.

"In the past few years, they’ve renovated the town centre, installed a pedestrian zone, put some order into the municipality and created jobs for young people," said Jelena, a local student.

"But at the same time Indjija is becoming as expensive to live in as a big town," she added. "With the arrival of all these investors, prices have become like those in Novi Sad."

Indjija’s budget has in fact grown enormously in recent years from 640,000 euro in 2000 to 5.3 million euro today.

The last few years have also seen a surplus, which has been put aside for next year, when the budget is expected to expand by another 17 per cent.

The surplus money, the local authorities maintain, is going into infrastructure projects as well as health and education.

They also recently built a new theatre, which in only 18 months has attracted more than 80,000 paying visitors.

Mayor Jesic says he is determined to ensure Indjija’s renaissance is not just a flash in the pan.

“Indjija’s development is not based on ‘ad hoc’ policies but on sound planning whose real results won’t be seen for another seven or eight years,” he said. “Only then will we see just how far we’ve advanced."

Petar Klaic is journalist with the Novi Sad daily Dnevnik.