Serbia and Hungary want exchange of goods worth 2 billion euros

Serbian Minister of Trade and Services Slobodan Milosavljevic invited today Hungarian companies to invest in Serbia and take the advantage of the free trade agreements that our country has concluded, with the aim of joint export of goods to the third markets.

Milosavljevic pointed out at the Business Forum of Hungarian and Serbian businessmen, which was organized as part of the official visit of the Hungarian Prime Minister to Serbia, that the aim of the business cooperation between the two countries was to achieve the exchange of goods worth 2 billion dollars.

He said that 500 joint ventures had been formed to date and that Hungarian investments in Serbia were worth 400 million euros. He also pointed out that the Serbian economy needed financial and technological partners, primarily in the wood-processing and machine industry, as well as in the energy and transport sector.

Hungarian Minister of Economy Djerdj Matolci voiced an expectation that the Government of Hungary would provide loans worth 100 million euros through the Development Bank for joint projects with Serbia.

According to his words, these loans should be used in the fields of agriculture and transport, and primarily for Istanbul–Belgrade–Vienna–Budapest railway, which should enable trains to travel at the speed of 200 km/h.

- The funds of the European Union are already available for the cross-border cooperation projects in the fields of ecology and water management - said Matolci and pointed out that the aim was that the two countries participated together in the European investment projects.

He expressed Hungary's readiness to share the experience with Serbia in the process of European integrations and pointed out that it should not be insisted on much too fast admission to the EU, which was seriously under the influence of the economic crisis at the moment.