The project “Top 100 in Montenegro 2019” is intended for companies that continuously accomplish excellent results, despite numerous limitations and objective and subjective business barriers, and as such deserve recognition and respect of the wider community.
This has been stated at the press conference, held on the occasion of launching the project “Top 100 in Montenegro”, which is being implemented this year for the second time and which was initiated by BI Consulting, the leading agency in the field of providing business and credit rating information, in partnership with the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Economy, with the support of the Chamber of Economy of Montenegro and with the general sponsorship of Societe Generale Bank Montenegro.
Mr. Ratko Nikolić, the founder of BI Consulting, a business information provider, has reminded the media representatives that the goal of the project was to promote positive business practices in Montenegro, and to make the most important Montenegrin companies, the largest taxpayers and the largest employers more visible.
“Despite numerous limitations and objective and subjective business barriers, it should be noted that there is a significant number of companies in Montenegro that continuously achieve excellent results. Such companies deserve recognition and respect of the wider community, which is why this Project is dedicated exactly to them,” Nikolić said.
He has added that top 100 companies, including micro, small and medium-sized enterprises, as well as all large companies, will be selected based on clear parameters from the financial statements for the business year 2018.
“We will rank all of them based on clear and publicly available parameters from their duly filed financial statements, based on their total revenues, net profit and number of employees. We will also single out 20 companies from each of the 12 key business activities and rank them by their revenues and publish them all in our special annual publication, which is an exclusive, collector’s edition, in which all significant business achievements from the previous financial year will find their place,” Nikolić said.
According to Mr. Nikolić, the ranking criteria and parameters are public, clear and precise, and companies, as he explained, are ranked automatically, depending on the achieved results reported in their balance sheets.
“The lists will include only those companies that submitted correct financial statements for 2018, that were not on the lists of companies with blocked bank account in the last 12 months, and that regularly pay tax obligations or regularly pay their obligations under the tax debt reprogramming contract, companies that have been doing business for at least three years, that have a capital of more than 100 thousand euros and more than three employees,” Nikolić has explained.
He has added that the top-ranked companies in these categories and the fastest growing company by the same parameters will receive awards at the ceremony in late May.
Mr. Radosav Babić, director general of the Directorate for Investments, Development of Small and Medium Enterprises and Management of EU Funds at the Ministry of Economy, has said that there are about 26 thousand registered companies in Montenegro that will be in the competition for the selection of the best and most profitable ones.
“A project like this will show to the existing and potential investors that they can find credible business opportunities and partners in Montenegro. It will additionally inspire and encourage start-up projects, especially in the category of micro and small enterprises. It is up to us as the Government and the state to create a favourable business environment for entrepreneurs and provide support for growth and development,” Babić has explained.
He has announced that the Ministry of Economy will implement the Economy Competitiveness Improvement Programme this year, through ten different programme lines aimed at improving innovation, introducing international standards, modernizing the processing industry, developing clusters, supporting development of crafts, providing mentoring services, and developing entrepreneurship.
“I am convinced that this kind of project is an additional incentive for domestic businessmen to use the support made available by the Government to continuously improve their businesses in the future, and thus contribute to their own efforts to be included in the list of the top 100 companies in Montenegro,” Babić has said.
Mr Nemanja Katnić, state secretary at the Ministry of Finance, has said that the participation of that government department, that is the Government, in this project will be very significant and that it will be an additional stimulus for domestic companies that want to accomplish even better business results.
“A project like this also gives prominence to the biggest taxpayers, which also shows how important financial reporting is for both businessmen and the state,” Katnić has said.
In cooperation with the Ministry of Finance, the Top 100 project, he has explained, singled out and awarded the best Montenegrin companies in different categories last year, which is a guarantee, he added, that Montenegro has some top-quality business entities.
“We hope that the forthcoming period will produce new names on the Montenegrin market, which will contribute to the development of the economic sector and result in additional new jobs and increased exports, as well as to the development of entrepreneurship, which is ultimately one of the main goals of this Government”, Katnić has said.
Mr Samo Jovićević, director of the Corporate Sector and deputy executive manager of the Société Générale Bank Montenegro, has said that, given the results and organization of the last year’s selection of “Top 100 in Montenegro”, that bank decided to be part of the project this year as well, believing that it will additionally give prominence to and reward the largest, best and most successful Montenegrin companies.
“We at Societe Generale Montenegro believe that it is very important to reward and give prominence to companies that have made an outstanding contribution to the Montenegrin economy and to the development of small and medium businesses, primarily because an example should be set to show that it is possible to accomplish good results and contribute to the further development of the business environment and the economy as a whole with persistent and committed work,” Jovicević said.
He has said that Societe Generale Bank Montenegro continued its practice of providing strong credit support to the Montenegrin companies last year. He has added that this is confirmed by the dynamic growth of the bank’s loan portfolio in this segment of about ten percent. “We are convinced that many Montenegrin companies, with many years of our continuous support, achieved record results in 2018 and thus deserved to be part of the club of the best and most successful Montenegrin companies,” Jovicević has said.