Another EUR 10 million available to local and foreign investors since June – Invitation for allocation of incentives opens

An additional EUR 10 million for incentives in 2018 has been available to local and foreign investors who invest in Serbia, and the Ministry of Economy has invited enterprises to apply in order to exercise this right.

The public invitation for the usage of incentives has been open since June, and the money is meant for projects which entail the employment of up to 100 workers, but also to big investment projects of special importance for the Republic of Serbia which don’t entail public calls.

When it comes to projects which entail the employment of up to 100 workers, the Ministry says that 12 contracts worth a total of around EUR 18 million were signed in 2017. The incentives for those projects, which will create 600 to 700 new jobs, amounted to EUR 2.3 million.

The state secretary at the Ministry of Economy, Dragan Stevanovic, says for Tanjug that EUR 4.2 million has been set aside this year for projects which entail the employment of up to 100 workers, of the total of EUR 10 million, and points out that investors that employ up to 100 workers in the long term in Serbia are very important.

– We need to focus on them and give them an opportunity to develop and expand. That will truly have a beneficial effect on the budget, the growth and the economic trends in Serbia – Stevanovic says and adds that Serbia has achieved it most significant growth precisely in the field of small and medium enterprises.

Stevanovic says that local and foreign investors have the same rights and opportunities.

As he says, the amount of incentives will depend on the degree of development of the local self-government and will be larger for those enterprises that operate in less developed areas. In order for an investor to qualify for the incentives, Stevanovic says, they need to invest EUR 100,000 in operations in a local self-government which is considered devastated and employ 10 new workers.

The maximum incentive amount per job that an investor can count on in such local self-governments is EUR 7,000, Stevanovic says. He specifies that, in local self-governments belonging to the first development group, enterprises need to invest EUR 500,000 and employ at least 50 new workers, and in that case, the maximum amount of incentives per job is EUR 3,000.

The incentives, Stevanovic says, are meant for the widest range of production activities, and the field of activities that can use his option has been expanded to include hotel tourism in spa areas.

Investors interested in using incentives should send a letter of intent to the Ministry of Economy, which will give its opinion on the project and the amount of funds that could be given as an incentive. The projects, Stevanovic specified, will be forwarded to the Development Agency of Serbia, which will allocate a project manager who will monitor the project, and once the right to incentives is realized, the control and the supervision over the project will be carried out by the Ministry of Economy in cooperation with the Development Agency of Serbia.

The invitation will be renewed in the next budget year, the state secretary announced and reminded that, for investors which employ over 100 workers, no special public calls are placed, as these are projects of special importance for Serbia.

He adds that around EUR 80 million will be provided this year for the obligations agreed in the past period, that is, for the payment to those companies who have fulfilled their contract obligations in the current year and who have realized the right to incentives.