Greek business-people invited to invest in Serbia

[Angelo]

Greek business-people invited to invest in Serbia


According to the National Bank of Serbia’s data, from 2000 to 2008 Greece invested almost $1.7 billion in Serbian and therefore became the second largest investor in Serbia although in the first quarter of 2009 it invested only $11.2 million.


Serbian Minister of Trade and Services Slobodan Milosavljevic invited Greek business-people to invest in Serbia. He highlighted the advantages offered by Serbia’s free trade agreement with Russia.

Speaking at the Serbian-Greek business forum held today at the Hyatt Hotel, Milosavljevic said that at a time when Serbia and Greece are dealing with the effects of the global economic crisis, economic cooperation between the two countries has become even more important.

He said that foreign direct investment in the first trimester of this year stood at $826 million, while this figure was $2.7 billion last year.

The Minister said that last year the Serbian government adopted the first set of measures to mitigate the effects of the crisis, adding that those measures were to encourage domestic savings and stock exchange trading, while later measures were taken to increase loan activity and the continuation of the Corridor 10 project.

He said that Serbia took steps to increase competition, to modernize infrastructure and to develop the private sector.

The Minister said that achieving these goals will also create better conditions for using the advantages offered by CEFTA as well as other free trade agreements that Serbia has signed with Russia, Belarus and Turkey.

The Minister recommended that Greek businesspeople set up joint enterprises on the Serbian territory, as it would enable them to export their products to Russia under very favourable conditions owing to the Free Trade Agreement between Serbia and Russia according to which 98% of products are freed from customs duties.

He recalled that last year Serbia imported products to the amount of $287.6 million from Greece, such as citrus fruit, cigarettes and medicines and exported sugar, polyethylene, copper, iron, steel and some types of paper at the most.

According to the National Bank of Serbia’s data, from 2000 to 2008 Greece invested almost $1.7 billion in Serbian and therefore became the second largest investor in Serbia, said Milosavljevic, adding that in the first quarter of 2009 it invested only $11.2 million.

Greek business-people have been investing in different fields, such as the banking, IT and energy sectors, the food and cement industries, telecommunications and trade.

The Minister recalled that the construction of Pan-European Corridor 10 started this year and invited Greek business-people to participate in this ambitious project by engaging their construction companies.

He also called upon Greek businessmen to invest in Serbia, particularly in the energy sector and tourism.

Serbian Prime Minister Mirko Cvetkovic, Greek President Karolos and representatives from Serbian and Greek companies participated in the Serbian-Greek Business Forum.

Greek business-people invited to invest in Serbia :: emportall :: Business news from Serbia

[half greek]

Good place to invest.

[Napalm]

Investing there is win-win.

[Prokomenos]

I agree it would be a great investment and knowing the Greeks most of us but unfortunately not me have a great nose for business.