By receiving the Bloomberg Foundation’s Philanthropies Award for Global Tobacco Control, Montenegro has shed its image as a country once associated with smuggling, Prime Minister Milojko Spajic said.

Spajic and Minister of Finance Novica Vukovic were presented on Monday with this year’s Bloomberg Foundation’s Award, in recognition of Montenegro’s exceptional achievements.

“Montenegro has, in the most beautiful way possible, overcome its decades-long image as a smuggling country”, Spajic stated in a press release.

According to him, Montenegro received a great recognition from the Michael Bloomberg Foundation for its success in preventing cigarette smuggling and tripling state revenues, from around EUR 40 million to 120 million.