M.A. Branislav Simović, Regional Director and member of the International Board of Directors of ‘Mace’ Company

Civil engineering is a dynamic and highly-accumulative economic sector which has multiple effects on other sectors of the economy. Each euro invested in civil engineering produces three euros of investments in other economic sectors. Each new job in civil engineering creates four new jobs in sectors related to it. Yet still, the global economic crisis in developed countries has strongly shaken this industrial sector. It has been estimated that civil engineering has suffered its most powerful blow in the last nine decades. According to statistical data of the ILO (International Labour Organization), in 2008 alone, five million builders lost their jobs. Until recently, Serbian civil engineering employed 200,000 people and it contributed up to 40% of gross domestic product. Unfortunately, these statistics are now followed by the data that in 2009 about 500 businesses in this area were extinguished. Such an unfavourable trend continued in the first months of the current year when in the area of Belgrade alone, which is the biggest and most dynamic market in the country, a decrease of 92% in construction activities has been noticed. In April 2010 construction activities in Serbia had decreased by 11.3% compared to the same month last year. 

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