13.12.2010.

Minister Sutanovac-national reformer of the year

The National Alliance for Local Economic Development (NALED) awarded "national reformer of the year" award to minister of defense Dragan Sutanovac in the RTS hall. As the press release of NALED states this recognition was awarded on according to the public opinion poll results and the opinions of the members of the NALED management board to those distinguished persons who made an effort during 2010 for Serbia to make a step forward.

This year’s laureates besides minister of defense are Dragan Djilas, the Mayor of Belgrade, Rodoljub Sabic, PublicIinformation Trustee, Zoran Radoman, director of the Regional Tax Directorate Center in Novi Sad and Vladimir Radosavljevic, director of Nikola Tesla air port.

„NALED“’s press release states that the professionalization of SAF is one of the most comprehensive and fastest reforms in our society in 2010. Military education and medicine were improved, defense industry was widely promoted, 1.2 billion USD worth of international contracts were signed thus opening possibilities for new investments where Serbia became the largest defense industry exporter in SEE. All of these accomplishments contributed to strengthening the reputation and economic growth of our country.

Following the presentation of award Minister said that even though the award bears his name his associates and coworkers were also the ones who deserve commendation for such impressive reforms, these being foremost, SAF CHOD LTG Miloje Miletic without whose help, as minister pointed out, the reforms would not have been feasible.
_When the citizens of Serbia deposit their trust in you, it was not so you could rule, but rather to make changes, reform, and accelerate things and standardize them. This is exactly what we have done in the defense system. Fully aware that reforms are usually met with disapproval, and can be unsuccessful, we managed to employ people and carry out reforms respecting the world standards thus increasing SAF’s popularity which all proves the reforms to be very successful.

In his answer to reporters’ questions whether he was personally satisfied with reforms in Serbia and what he believe their main objective is, the minister said that the basic objective of reforms is to standardize our society while introducing the European system of values in so everyone in government administration could work on improving the standard of living of the Serbian citizens. He also stressed that reforms in the military were a never-ending process and that judging by the experiences of his foreign colleagues each army was undergoing some sort of reform.

Given the very bad starting position of our defense system, we can safely say that we have reached a standard which some countries which have started reforms long before we did strive after. Our country is generally believed to have been left behind in comparison to the modern world, and today we need so much energy to reach and keep up with those countries which have just entered or are yet to enter the EU.

As to the question whether there is some part of reform in our society the minister is displeased with, he said he had no intention to comment on the success and results of others and that the defense system still needs improvement. However, he expressed his pleasure at seeing both MoD and SAF reforms going progressing so fast towards the best world standards.