4 EDITION 3
THE MONTENEGRO TIMES
JULY 14 2008
BUSINESS
US - Montenegro Business Council to announce Montenegrin board members Charles Dillon knows a good thing when he spots it, and the experienced American attorney is certain he has found a winner in Montenegro. Founding board member Charles Dillon is with the US - Montenegro Business Council (USMNEBC) and he was in Montenegro last week working on this exciting new project. Dillon sees a bright future for cross investment between the two countries and the member of the US board has strong opinions about why American investors should be flocking to Montenegro, but he believes they may need a little push. "American companies that I have spoken with, when they see the size of the country and the population they wonder what the market really is for their service or product, but once you explain that it is the centre of the region, the size of the tourism industry, how beautiful the country is and that it is a friendly environment for foreign investment - last year I believe they had over a billion in foreign direct investment once you explain that people open up. A lot of it is education."
That is what the USMNEBC is focused on at this point in time, the organization's long-term goals are to facilitate American investment in Montenegro and vice-versa but for the moment, Dillon says they are laying the groundwork for future business exchanges. "It is time consuming to educate people, so we have spent a lot of our time this year working within Maryland getting people on the (council's) board excited about Montenegro. We have been working with various levels of government in Maryland, increasing dialogues. It is a slower process than I would personally like, but nothing good happens quick." The Council is looking to promote, and facilitate business investment between the two countries and while there are barriers to bringing American business to Montenegro, mainly education according to Dillon, there are sometimes problems in convincing Montenegrins to export what they have to offer to America " ... it is extremely complicated to do business with Americans at times because we have so many requirements in the way we look at doing deals, it takes us more time to feel comfortable ... I think that doing business in Europe and Eastern Europe is different. I have a number of international clients who prefer to do business outside of the United States because it takes time, it is expensive and there are hurdles to jump over, tax and regulatory issues to look at, you know we have fifty states and each one has a different (tax) structure. It becomes complicated. The council would assist the Montenegrin businesses that are looking to expand into the United States. The goal is to work both ways." Another goal of the council however is not to focus simply on the big fish in the business world. "Ideally we will also be working with small to mid-sized business and not just big organizations ... the goal is to create wealth, opportunity and sometimes the most successful project is not necessarily the biggest one."
The American board members of the council have been selected in Maryland and the team of members will offer a range of skills and experiences to the council members. James D. Fielder Jr., Ph.D. of SMART is the former Secretary of Labor, Licensing, and Regulation for the State of Maryland. Prof Morad Eghbal is a Professor of Law at the University of Baltimore School of Law, where he teaches International Business Transactions and International Finance. Nancy Wallace was the Director of International Operations for the Maryland Department of Business and Economic Development, where she oversaw 11 foreign offices and supervised a domestic team of international trade and investment. Warren Hartenstine has over 30 years experience in the development and management of complex technologies. Joseph DiCara who as been involved in companies as a CEO, Managing Director, President, Vice-President, and Sales Manger. Robert L. McKinney has over 25 years of private and public-sector experience serving in a variety of leadership positions involved in important policy matters at differing levels of government. The USMNEBC's hope is to have 5 initial board members in Montenegro and Dillon is confident that the Council is a matter of weeks away from announcing who will be contributing to the project. ''They have been selected and their responses have all been very positive. They are very knowledgeable and I think are the perfect group to represent Montenegrin business as well as (the Montenegrin) policy side."
The USMNEBC will hold at least one annual conference in the United States or Montenegro. These conferences will be focused on recent developments that have taken place in regards to the council's work. Information relating to key policy issues impacting business relations, new business opportunities that have become available, and other relevant developments will be presented to USMNEBC members. The business council has been quite busy of late having organized an event entitled "An Independent Montenegro Year Two: Moving toward NATO and the EU". Miodrag VIahovic, Montenegro's Ambassador to the United States, was the key-note speaker and be spoke about Montenegro's road to admission into the European Union and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
The US - Montenegro Business Council is following in the footsteps of other international business councils that are operating world-wide, such as the US - Russia Business Council and the US - Ukrainian Business Council, both well established long-standing organizations.
For more information, or to set up an initial consultation, contact
Charles T. Dillon, Esq.
100 West Road, Suite 300
Towson, Maryland 21204
Tel: (410) 459-8644
Email: cdillon@dillonlegal.com
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