The upcoming weekend is scheduled for the most important business event in the country and in the region, the 31st Kopaonik Business Forum, which is to be held from 3rd to 6th of March at the Grand Hotel in Kopaonik.

The central topic of the Forum will be "New Global Context: Challenges of an Uncertain Future", and to continue the previous years' tradition, Jorgovanka Tabaković will open the Forum, and Mark Barnet, President of Mastercard Europe, will address the attendees on behalf of Mastercard company, the Forum's main partner. Ana Brnabić, Prime Minister of Serbia, will traditionally address the participants at the end of the Forum.

"Interest in KBF 2024 is exceptional, which is why more than 1500 participants will convene during the four-days' work. We have prepared an attractive and intensive agenda with interesting and influential panelists and special guests. Through three plenary sessions, four special events, 36 panels with approximately 200 panelists, each participant of the Forum will be able to find something to their particular interest. This year, we will host many guests from the region, which is further proof that the Forum has outgrown the national framework and become an event of regional importance. Kopaonik Business Forum is a place of gathering, business connectivity and dialogue, an event that provides a broad platform for interactive exchange of opinions and well-argued debate between all participants with the aim of designing sustainable and applicable economic policy solutions in Serbia and the region", Aleksandar Vlahović, President of the Serbian Association of Economists, pointed out.

By signing a new three-year agreement, the traditional partnership with Mastercard company continues.

Jelena Ristić, Country manager for Serbia, Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina markets at Mastercard, said, "What we at Mastercard do in the Serbian market is identical to our global approach – we are a tech company that enables swift, secure, practical and intuitive transactions, regardless of the time and place our clients need to perform them, and we shall continue to connect financial ecosystem players in order to continue to move ahead together. This is why Kopaonik Business Forum is important to us, to help us initiate open discussions with other market participants, because only after we have taken a realistic look at our own position can we take efficient steps towards improvement."

Special guests at this year's Forum will be Jeffrey Sachs, Professor at Columbia University, and Ivailo Izvorski, Chief Economist for the Europe and Central Asia region at the World Bank. Donal McGettigan, IMF Mission Chief for Serbia, will also address the attendees of the Forum. In their plenary addresses, the Forum's guests will try to clarify the future developments of the geopolitical and geo-economic situation in the world and in Europe, and to offer a closer evaluation of the macroeconomic situation in Serbia and the Western Balkan region.