29.06.2006.
Belgrade, June 29, 2006
Dear ladies and gentlemen,
Allow me to greet you on behalf of the National Bank of Serbia, an institution that has, from its very inception, attested to the importance and successfulness of the diaspora and its contribution. Of the first 19 employees of the Privileged National Bank of the Kingdom of Serbia, as many as 9 came from abroad. Even Djordje Vajfert, who served his country as Governor of the National Bank for a remarkable period of 26 years – a term in office unlikely to be outstripped any time soon – came from Pančevo, and even at that time, as our famous playwright Dušan Kovačević described in his play “Dinar by Dinar”, one could hear comments such as: ”With so many Serbs fit for the position, did we really have to appoint an outsider?“
That this late 19th century tradition has continued to this day is well illustrated by my own example! Born in Hungary, I finished elementary school in my home village of Santovo, attended grammar school in Budapest, and then went on to graduate at the Faculty of Economics in Belgrade where I “returned” on October 15, 2000. Back in my home village, people referred to my family as being Bosnian of origin: Laza, my grandfather on my mother’s side, left Bosnia in the early years of the last century and went to Saint Lewis, only to return to Europe after World War I, but this time to a flatter part of it – my home village. For the Hungarians, I have been and always will be a Serb; in Serbia, during my studies for example, I was referred to as Radovan the Hungarian. During my postgraduate studies in Chicago, I lived in a Hungarian Catholic church bought by a Catholic priest from my village who had moved to Chicago in mid-1930s and to whom my grandfather Branko used to assist as bell ringer since a lot of Serbs in the village lived in the vicinity of the Catholic church. For those Hungarians in America, I was and always will be a Serb. On my next stop in Frankfurt, during my “temporary” work in Germany in the latter half of the 1990s, I was again treated as a Hungarian, mainly because of my passport, although the name “Radovan” had in the meantime become more than indicative of the nation I belonged to. Chances are I still have quite a few stops ahead of me, as I and my wife, who is “Greek American”, feel equally “at home” in Budapest, Belgrade, Frankfurt, even Chicago. Many people cannot understand that – I do not judge them, I simply feel sorry for them!
Then came October 5, 2000! When on the afternoon of October 12 I came to Belgrade for only one day and spent a night in the rundown Hotel Moskva, I knew I had to return! Already next day, I returned to Frankfurt to request unpaid annual leave in the duration of 3 months from my then employer – later that same day, I was again on a plane to Belgrade. And apparently, those 3 months have still not finished …
Why did I come back? Why did I leave the German “Ordnung“, a job in McKinsey, a good salary and a promising career; likewise, why did I convince my wife that I, Radovan the Hungarian, should be in Serbia at a time like that to help it change; why did I accept the challenging position in the National Bank of Serbia and all the unknowns this implied? I am afraid that even now I am unable to fully answer that question, and anyway, it hardly seems to matter any longer! It has been almost 6 years now since that time, and I have most certainly been put through the Belgrade mill. First they praise you, then sling mud at you; then again come praises, only to give way to new attacks. But for me, personally, there is only one thing that is important, and that is: there is not a single sector in Serbia that has changed more than the financial sector (banks, insurance companies) and no (government) institution has undergone more changes than this very National Bank of Serbia! Everything else pales in comparison to that!
You may wonder why I am I telling you all this. For one simple reason – I need company, because it is no easy thing to be alone! After a while, one starts doubting one’s own self, because in Serbia everyone wants changes, but those willing to change themselves are very rare. “It has always been done this way”, “that cannot work in Serbia”, “Serbia is a specific case”, “in 1970s this was the best solution” – it is comments like these that are the albatross around Serbia’s neck, and it is this kind of reasoning that has cost Serbia an entire decade. So after a while, you start asking yourself: Why is it such a problem to enter this one way street from the other side, or why insist so much on certain moves, if that very Europe is not overly principled either? And when you think this through to its logical conclusion, you can easily be seduced by the idea that, yes, we are specific and different and special and…
That is why, although as Governor of the National Bank of Serbia I am well aware that the diaspora has to date remained Serbia’s best “export product”, generating an inflow of over USD 4 billion in 2005, I believe this particular type of benefit is just the basis to build on by using diaspora’s knowledge and experience, which is exactly what can best help Serbia now. Remittances get spent quickly and no long-term development is possible based on charity, whereas to invest in Serbia for nothing but purely patriotic reasons will benefit neither diaspora nor Serbia.
There is no transition without people, and in particular educated, broad-minded, incorrupt people, who speak 3-4 languages; people who still believe in something, who still know how to “fly”; people who want to change things, and change them every day! On October 5, foundations were laid for building a new society, a new and modern Serbia. There have been many trials on the road we have traveled so far, and I am afraid we have still not entirely won the victory over that idyllic, but, if nothing else, economically completely unrealistic past! And again, we need diaspora to do this, as I am sure that diaspora is the best source of people that Serbia now needs in order to make up for the lost 1990s. Only ten such people in the National Bank of Serbia could significantly step up changes; a hundred would enable a real boom in the entire country. I do not know a single minister or general manager that would not give a world to have such people, people that our diaspora has! And if both the state and the National Bank start working in an efficient and modern fashion, economic growth, debts, inflation, even corruption, none of these challenges will be unconquerable!
Do not think of Serbia only as of a country in which to invest, or to which to send money as support to your closest ones; think of it as a country in which you can both live and work, where, right now, in these days and months, the cornerstone of a new country, of a new society is being laid. You have the right – and indeed some of you also feel the obligation – to be a part of this process. No one can deny you this right, even if your Serbian is not perfect, even if you are the third generation that was raised abroad, and regardless of whether you have already taken out a Serbian passport of not. This is your country, and my country, and just by being present here today, you have already done the greatest possible thing. You have not forgotten Serbia!
Governor`s Office
