Trade of Serbia with BSEC countries increases five times

There has been a five-fold increase in the trade between Serbia and 12 countries of the Organization of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation in the past six years, State Secretary at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Nemanja Stevanovic said at the seminar “Results and perspective of cooperation in the BSEC region – 25 years after the foundation”.

– The area taken by the countries of BSEC has 350 million consumers, and the Organization is of fundamental importance to Serbia, as the countries from this area are our third biggest trade partner. There's been a dramatic growth of exchange of goods and services with them, and the trade with the countries of the Organization grew five times between 2010 and 2016 – Stevanovic points out and adds that a whole set of concrete projects for further cooperation are being prepared, above all in the field of trade and capital infrastructural projects.

The aim of the gathering, organized by the Chamber of Commerce of Serbia (CCIS), was for the results and the perspective of cooperation with the BSEC countries to be presented to the public and the business sector and for potential problems and difficulties to be identified, the solutions to which are to be worked on in the coming period.

– Following the EU and CEFTA, our biggest economic trade is with the countries of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation. The mutual trade with these 12 countries amounts to around USD 6 billion – the director of the Foreign Economic Cooperation Sector at the CCIS, Nenad Djurdjevic, says for Tanjug.

As he said, Serbia has a surplus in trade with Albania, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Georgia and Romania, whereas the country has a deficit in trade with the other countries, most noticeably with the Russian Federation and Turkey, followed by Ukraine, Greece, Armenia and Moldova.

– This information is important for geopolitical reasons and economically as well, because important gas and oil pipelines go through the countries of this Organization – Djurdjevic explains.

He emphasizes that it is important for the operations of this Organization not to be blocked, as certain member-countries sometimes don't take part in such gatherings.

Results of activities carried out up till that point within BSEC at the level of Serbia , current activities and expectations for the coming period were presented at the seminar.

The export of Serbia to the member-states of the Organization has reached USD 2.7 billion in the past years and makes up 18.1% of Serbia's total exports. The import amounted to USD 3.7 billion and makes up 19.3% of Serbia's total imports, it was said at the gathering.

BSEC has 12 member-countries. In addition to Serbia, they are Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Georgia, Greece, Moldova, Romania, Russia, Turkey and Ukraine.

Ministarstvo spoljnih poslova Republike Srbije

Privredna komora Srbije

Organization of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation

BSEC

CEFTA

Nemanja Stevanovic

CCIS

Foreign Economic Cooperation Sector CCIS

Nenad Djurdjevic