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Institutional and political support to implementation of REA by appointing Regional Cooperation Officials.

Prime Ministers in each Government in the region should appoint Regional Copperation Officials to coordinate and oversee Regional Cooperation agenda (in later phase Ministers for Regional Rooperation in each Government) - initiate projects, coordinate execution, improve relations and coordination and showcase that the region is committed to working together. Institutional cooperation is the key to success of Regional Economic Area and more needs to be done in order to improve capacities in the institutions to tackle issues and challenges. Regional cooperation officials should meet quarterly with the business community to enhance public private dialogue as the tool for successful implementation of any measures aimed at better regional cooperation. Chambers Investment Forum as regional association of chambers of commerce and industry as the only regional body representing entire business community in the region is the right platform to facilitate such a dialogue.

Free movement of goods/ services throughout the region to cut costs and make goods and services more competitive on the global market.

• First, make all the customs procedures publicly available on Customs Offices websites throughout the region and thus make them transparent, accessible and predictable.
• Unification of all customs declarations, procedures (also allowing full cumulation of origin and duty drawback) and standardization of all inspections including sanitary, phytosanitary, veterinary, etc., on the regional level in alignment to EU standards so that each country recognizes the same border declarations, documentation for certain type of products from certified labs, agencies, etc.
• Design and implementation of regional IT system to connect all the customs within the region to support harmonized and EU aligned regional customs documentation and inspection procedures to result in zero-time waste at the borders (estimate is that optimal time a truck spends on the border should be 7.5 minutes). The check of documentation and goods should be on the first border of the Regional Economic Area of WB like it works in the EU.
  • All documentation should be applied electronically, distributed immediately through IT system to all the customs within the region, all the customs duties paid accordingly, and when approved, the goods allowed to travel throughout the region without border checks of goods.
  • Border checks of goods to be applied only based on risk analysis. Risk management should be coordinated on the regional level.
• Removal of all non-tariff barriers throughout the region (customs origin guarantees, additional ad hoc analysis, special labels, etc.). Putting a system – Governmental working group - in place in every country to monitor, detect and eliminate non-tariff barriers with the obligation to react within 15 days from the claim from the business community.
• Improved infrastructure on border crossing to allow more gates for trucks to differentiate between trucks with T license and others, etc.
• Eliminate market access barriers throughout the region to allow better production costs.
• Liberalization of trade in services especially in finance, insurance, transport (for example licenses for road transport), tourism; liberalization of electronic commerce, liberalization in cross-border data transfer, etc.
• Coordination and cooperation of Statistical offices within the region to measure the trade indexes on regional level and to ensure better regional statistics.

Free movement of people

Allowing people from the region to travel, study and work within the region without extra paperwork (travel without passport, only with ID card) and too much administration. This would potentially allow common labor market, solve to a certain extent regional unemployment issues (high unemployment rates in WB from lowest being 15% in Serbia and Albania to highest being 32.5% in Kosovo in 2016) and make a move towards prevention of brain drain from the area (all countries in the region have very low ranking on ability to retain talent) as it would open more opportunities within the region.

• Removing obstacles, bureaucratic and administrative (no work permits, no discrimination for nationals of any regional country) to allow mobility of professionals throughout the region by allowing regional mutual recognition agreements of professional qualifications in jointly identified sectors of key importance for regional economies. This should be under the consideration that cooperation between the countries should be conducted in such a way as to support the measures taken by each individual country to guarantee the harmonious development of employment, and to ensure that migratory movements between the countries do not create any imbalance in the labor market and that, it is beneficial for the economic and social development of those countries.
• Allow automatic recognition of quality assured academic qualifications for all professions within the region.
• Allow multilateral agreements on social security and pension funds recognition for certain sectors to allow more flexibility and mobility of working people within the region.
• Remove obstacles to mobility of students, scientists and academics throughout the region to allow knowledge transfer, cooperation within academic community in the region to allow more innovation, R&D, etc.
• Remove visa requirements for tourists visiting the region to allow more mobility of tourists within the region.
• Work on regional strategy on harmonizing education system with anticipated future labor market needs.

Joint digital transformation strategy

Tthat would lead to transformation of companies, business models and entire industries. If utilized timely, Digital Transformation will contribute to the economic growth, job creation and improve competitiveness and business prosperity of the region. Digital Transformation will relate to the ICT industries and it will lead the comprehensive changes within the traditional industries (e.g. automotive, electricity, consumer goods). The number of the connected devices to the Internet will rise up to 1 trillion by 2030 which creates room for growth of connectivity, data economy and fast forward to stronger utilization of the advanced technology (connected devices (IoT), robotics and artificial intelligence).

• In order to encompass the value of this industry revolution, the WB6 region should create harmonized regulatory baseline that will support data economy (eCommerce, e/mID, e/mGovernment solutions, etc.) and stimulate value creation through digitization of the operations of the traditional industries. This transformation process should also encompass the societal benefits of the digitization process like environmental impact through reduced CO2 emissions and improved healthcare systems.
• Allow cross border data transfer within the region in accordance to security policies of the countries.
• Install a role of Chief Information Officer in each of the Governments in the region to ease the coordination and implementation of digital transformation and cooperation in digital matters to facilitate the integration process into EU’s Digital Single Market.

Joint regional energy strategy

Especially in the domain of electricity production/ trade could result in making the region more sustainable and thus energy secure as it would rely on its own resources. Further focus on renewable energy to make the region greener and energy sustainable.

• Strategy on optimization of resources and production facilities but also investment into production facilities on the regional level.
• Liberalization of regional electricity market.
• One of the priorities can be policy standardization on regional level for investments in renewable energy sources (in line with EU practices) that would result in attracting more investments in this segment in the region and making the region greener and energy sustainable.
• Incentives for electric vehicles and chargers to ensure faster development into green region.

Jointly promoting the region as a unique investment destination

By joining the funds and efforts in presenting the region's investment potential, creativity, food and cuisine, tourist attractions, with the emphasis of the needs of the businesses.

• Web platform to present the region's potentials to investors.
• Joint boots at the international fairs presenting the regional offer if and when possible.
• Joint promotion of an integrated tourist offers for the region.
• Perhaps even Prime Ministers, Presidents going jointly to visits to third markets with a delegation of regional business representatives, etc.