Finance minister of the year 2007: Mladjan Dinkic

Hitting the right notes in Serbia

A keen musician, Mladjan Dinkic knows all about the value of a good composition. And as a finance minister too. Certainly in 2006 the Serbian economy was clearly in tune, boasting robust GDP growth, record foreign direct investment, high-profile privatizations, rising exports, falling inflation and a surging stock market.

In the annual prize fight for Euromoney’s finance minister of the year award, few contenders can claim to have held all three of the most important belts in the fiscal universe – central bank governor, minister of finance and minister of economy. Dinkic can. What’s more, over the course of seven years he can justifiably claim to have worn all three with distinction.

For a man who spent the best part of the 1990s in the sedate world of academia – much of it lecturing at various economic institutes in Europe and the US – following the fall of president Slobodan Milosevic in October 2000 Dinkic adapted remarkably well to the rough and tumble of Serbian politics and has proved himself to be not only a savvy operator but also someone who is not afraid of slugging it out with opponents in pursuit of his unapologetically reformist agenda.

Although the appropriate academic background has undoubtedly played a role in Dinkic’s success, it is arguably his abilities as a political street fighter that have enabled him to translate words into deeds in the face of fierce opposition. As founder and leader of the G-17 Plus party, which pursues an unashamedly liberal socioeconomic reform agenda, Dinkic has become one of the leading politicians in Serbia, with a reputation as someone who not only talks the talk but also walks the walk. As a result G-17 Plus has become a key player on the political stage in Belgrade, a fact that has ensured that Dinkic and his party have been at the heart of many of the positive changes that have occurred in Serbia since the beginning of the decade.

“Dinkic knows the right things to do and how to get them done,” says Dusko Pavlovic, head of sales and trading at Prospera Securities, one of a number of investment banking boutiques established in Belgrade in the past few years by Serbs who, having lived abroad during the war-torn 1990s, have been attracted back to their homeland by the economic reforms enacted by Dinkic and the business opportunities they have helped to create. It’s not only his own countrymen that Dinkic has impressed either. He has won plaudits abroad for his staunchly pro-market stance and authoritative manner. “To a great degree he has known the right language to present to international investors so that even when the political situation overall has looked rocky he has been able to calm investor jitters,” says James Oates, senior adviser at UniCredit Markets & Investment Banking in London. He adds: “Dinkic earned great respect at the National Bank of Serbia by leading the currency and the banking system out of crisis and demonstrating a certain coolness under fire.”