The Roundtable, titled “Combating Illegal Trade Through Research, Education and Awareness“, was held from July 20 – 22, 2021 at The Faculty of Business Economics and Entrepreneurship (PEP). PEP has been implementing the project since June 2019, being focused on the illegal tobacco trade, while analyzing the relation between illegal trade and other related crimes.
The project objectives are to investigate illegal actions such as: tobacco smuggling, counterfeiting of tobacco and alcohol products; defining the relation between illegal trade and other forms of crime; identifying shortcomings in the current legal framework; developing and conducting training courses in the field of combating illegal trade for police and customs officers, tax authorities, etc .; implementation of broad communication campaigns to raise awareness concerning the problem of illegal trade and its relations to other forms of crime.
The participation in the Round table “Combating Illegal Trade Through Research, Education and Awareness“, has been taken by a large number of experts from the region, especially the Western Balkans countries, who have presented results in their researches.
The Faculty of Business Economics and Entrepreneurship (PEP) is the stakeholder of the project “Combating Illegal Trade Through Research, Education and Awareness“. The PEP professors have been working hard, conducting extensive research and analyzing the results primarily related to the illegal tobacco trade. The tobacco market is one of the most regulated markets in the world, although, illegal tobacco trade and smuggling have been present in the region for years - Prof Gordana Djordjevic, PhD has claimed, opening the Roundtable, and then presenting the data and establishing the extent of the gray economy in tobacco industry in Serbia in the course of 2019 and 2020.
The project “Combating Illegal Trade Through Research, Education and Awareness“ is funded by PMI IMPACT - a global initiative launched by Philip Morris International Inc. to support public, private and non-governmental organizations for the development and implementation of projects against illegal tobacco trade and related crimes.
