Mirko Cvetković assumed office as prime minister in July 2008. He served as finance minister from May 2007 until taking up his current post. Previously, he was head of consultancy firm Intercon. In 2003-04 he was director of Serbia’s Privatisation Agency, having served as deputy economy and privatisation minister from 2001 to 2003. In 1998-2001 he was adviser for economic issues at the Mining Institute, where he had begun his professional career 23 years earlier. From the mid-1970s he worked at the Mining Institute for ten years, then at the Economics Institute for six years, followed by seven years at advisory and research firm CES MECON, where he was a consultant. During the 1980s Mr Cvetković acted as a consultant for the World Bank on a number of projects in Pakistan, India and Turkey, as well as for the UN Development Programme in Somalia. He graduated from the economics faculty of the University of Belgrade, from which he also received an MSc and a PhD. He has published a number of papers and articles on privatisation in Serbia and abroad. He speaks fluent English.