Stories for 1,001 nights - Multi-billion-euro projects announced by sheikhs from Emirates, only few implemented so far

(Belgrade Waterfront) Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic has recently been staying again in Abu Dhabi, where he talked with the leaders of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) about "key bilateral issues, especially economic relations and joint projects," the Government's Media Relations Office said in a release.
When the first announcements of investments from that wealthy Arabian country in Serbia were made few years ago, reactions ranged from absolute delight to total disbelief.
Today, however, it is not hard to determine if anything announced has actually happened, while certain projects valued at hundreds of millions or even billions of euros have not been mentioned ever since, not even as a joke.
Jat Airways landed, Air Serbia takes off on Arabian wings
The idea that Serbia's national airline could have a bright future seemed really utopic until only few years ago. Decades of poor management, outdated technology, multimillion losses were all burdening the flag carrier of ex-Yugoslavia. Neither a pompous announcement in 1998 that new aircraft would be procured nor the interest expressed by Russian, Indian and other airlines were enough to fix Jat Airways' bad reputation and business results.
And then, in 2013, information emerged that Etihad, one of the world's quickest-growing and most respectable airlines, was going to take over Jat Airways. And, to the surprise of many, that really happened. Serbia gave Etihad a 49-percent stake in the national airline which then obtained a new management and, what is even more important, a new name - Air Serbia.
Today, Air Serbia uses the aircraft provided by the Arab partners, registering a constant increase in the number of both passengers and destinations covered, and it is also getting ready to operate flights to America and making plans to overmaster the regional air market.
Of course, this story too is not free of controversy. It is still not completely clear who invested in Air Serbia and how much, what are the obligations of the two partners, and how big debts of Jat Airways the state assumed.
"Belgrade Waterfront"
Those who were shaking their head at the Arab investment in Jat Airways probably gaped in wonder at the announcement of big joint venture of our state and sheikhs from the Emirates. Regeneration of the Sava Amphitheater, part of the Serbian capital city whose beautiful name does not suit the real picture, was what generations of town planners, architects and citizens of Belgrade dreamed of.
The last serious attempt to win the votes by announcing the regeneration of banks in downtown Belgrade took place in the mid-1990s, when the Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS) and main initiator Milutin Mrkonjic announced the project "Europolis - Belgrade on the Sava River 2000."
And it was like that until Mohammed Al Abbar, the president of one of the largest construction companies in the UAE - Emaar Properties, expressed readiness to finance the Belgrade Waterfront project on a surface area of as many as 90 hectares, valued at whopping EUR 3.1 billion.
A plan that calls for the construction of hotels, luxury apartments, commercial space, business and residential towers and the largest shopping center in the Balkans, as well as the relocation of railway and bus stations, was unveiled last year. In the meantime, this whole area is being cleared rapidly, and the construction of first facilities is expected to start very soon.
Banks follow investors – Mirabank arrives in Serbia
Over a year ago, Mirabank from the United Arab Emirates got a permit to operate in Serbia. That's the first greenfield investment in the banking sector of Serbia since 2008. Jorgovanka Tabakovic, the governor of the National Bank of Serbia, said in September 2014 that this bank from the UAE had big plans for Serbia, adding that it intended to invest USD 5 billion in Serbia within the next three years, but that retail operations would not be developed during the first two years of operations.
Arabs plan to cultivate Serbian fields
The media in Serbia have also recently announced that the citizens of the UAE are buying houses and deserted farms across Vojvodina. Local farmers are worried that the end-goal of the Arabs might be to buy all our agricultural land. Stories about the arrival of sheikhs who should bring our farmers money and know-how for agriculture from the Arabic desert is much more serious than the acquisition of several farms in Vojvodina.
A EUR 140 milllion worth of agreement on joint investment in agriculture was signed in July 2014 with the Al Rawafed company. Even before that, an investment of the Al Dahra company in the acquisition of eight agricultural cooperatives, construction of five fodder plants and the installation of irrigation system on 25,000 hectares of land had been announced. When nothing came out of this, Al Rawafed appeared and acquired 4,500 hectares of land in Sivac, Vojvodina from the agricultural company Backa and state-owned fields as well as about 6,000 hectares in Nova Gajdobra, Bac and Sonta.
What else we got
Some of the investments announced by the Arab partners seemed like stories told by Scherezade, so it is not a surprise to many that they have never been implemented.
Among the most notable announcements were those about the construction of microchip manufacturing plant by Mubadala, in which as much as USD 4 billion were supposed to be invested, and a research and development center, some kind of precursor of the future factory. Few hundred million euros were expected to be invested in that center which would employ 50 doctors of science. There is still no sign of this center and no indications it will be built at all.
The manufacturing plant, of which there is still no sign, should have employed thousands of engineers, and the project was valued at whopping USD 8 billion.
We could have also heard stories about the opening of factory producing components for Boeing and Airbus aircraft, fo which the Government and Mubadala even signed a memorandum, but the foundation stone has not been laid to date. Mubadala also used to announce the possibility of investing in Jat Tehnika.
Mubadala was also announcing it would buy a license for 4G mobile telephony and build a telecom data center.
Aforementioned Al Dahra was supposed to build a cargo terminal at Nikola Tesla Airport as well as to invest in the Port of Pancevo. They also announced recapitalization of the company Yugoslav River Shipping.
One of the big projects announced was the development of ALAS missile system valued at USD 220 million, which Jugoimport SDPR was supposed to build for the Emirates.
If everything that was talked about came true, the citizens of Serbia could experience the life of sheikhs. Milos Vlahovic

Vlada Republike Srbije

Air Serbia ad Beograd

OGRANAK ETIHAD AIRWAYS Beograd

A.D. Aerodrom Nikola Tesla Beograd

Beograd na vodi d.o.o. Beograd

Emaar Properties Dubai

Mirabank a.d. Beograd

Narodna banka Srbije Beograd

Al Dahra Ujedinjeni Arapski Emirati

Mubadala Development Company PJSC Abu Dhabi

JAT Tehnika d.o.o. Beograd

Telekom Srbija a.d. Beograd

Luka Dunav Pančevo

JRB AD Beograd

HK Krušik a.d. Valjevo

Jugoimport-SDPR Beograd

Utva - avio industrija d.o.o. Pančevo

investment from the United Arab Emirates

Aleksandar Vucic

Jat airways

Air Serbia

Etihad

Mohammed Al Abbar

Emaar Properties

Mirabank

Jorgovanka Tabakovic

Al Rawafed

Al Dahra

Mubadala

Jugoimport SDPR

Krusik

Teleoptik

Utva Pancevo