Serbian Economy Aims to Have as Many Foreign Investors as Possible – Local Business People Not Discriminated Against, Minister Claims

The aim of the Serbian economy is to get as many foreign investors as possible, stated the minister of economy, Slobodan Cvetkovic. At the panel “The Challenges of the Serbian Economy: The View of Local and Foreign Investors” at the Kopaonik Business Forum, he added that foreign investments and foreign investors were not just big, but that they also employed a large number of workers and brought new technologies.

– There is absolutely no discrimination of local investments to the benefit of foreign ones in Serbia – said Cvetkovic, as announced by the ministry.

According to him, the problem lies in the potency of local and foreign investors.

– Our companies, family businesses, started developing in the 1990s, went through the sanctions, the bombing and other problems, the inflation, the hyperinflation, and an average business person has accumulated five, 10, 20 million euros, that’s it. On the other hand, there are foreign companies, which come from a business environment where they have been able to accumulate billions and thereby invest 200, 300 million euros in Serbia – says Cvetkovic.

Cvetkovic pointed out that the aim of the Serbian economy was to get as many foreign investors as possible.

– Foreign investors have their markets, they are pulling the local economy. The local economy becomes a kind of a subcontractor of those big systems and, in the future, they can become exporters to those markets. I know that everybody would like us to have the kind of economy we had during the former Yugoslavia, giant companies employing 20,000 people, but that’s not realistic – said Cvetkovic.

The minister pointed out that local economy was being helped through things that were being done and that there were certainly possibilities for the focuses to sharpen additionally.

“Foreign investments are an excellent thing, they directly draw local investments, open new markets, push us to develop, improve, implement standards,” minister Cvetkovic pointed out and invited local business people to present concrete projects.

Ministarstvo privrede Republike Srbije

Ministry of Economy

Slobodan Cvetković

Kopaonik Business Forum

The Challenges of the Serbian Economy The View of Local and Foreign Investors

foreign investments

foreign investors