Muehlbauer to open technology center in Stara Pazova in April 2012 - Investment worth EUR 10 million

(Photo: Muehlbauer)

Work on the construction of a technology center in Stara Pazova, in which Muehlbauer is going to invest EUR 10 million, is progresing on schedule, and the production of smart technologies is due to start in April 2012, Muehlbauer Serbia CEO Bojan Stojadinovic announces to eKapija.

Muehlbauer, the world’s market leader in innovative systems and software solutions for the production and personalization of cards, passports and RFID applications, employs about 2,000 people in Europe and the USA, most of whom are highly educated. This company decided to invest in Serbia because of the competence of our people and the quality of manpower.

For a start, the technology center in Stara Pazova will employ 100 people, mainly engineers.

- Besides the parent company in Germany, the technology center in Stara Pazova will be the first of the kind in Europe. We will be producing technological solutions that gaurantee the highest level of data security. All knowledge of electronics, mechanical engineering, information technology and chemistry will be utilized at that center. We also plan to develop and test new technologies and cooperate with higher education institutions in Serbia - faculties of mechanical engineering, electrical engineering and economy, through internships and technical education for students, with the possibility of their later employment - says Stojadinovic.

Our interlocutor points out that the company's cooperation with local authorities in Stara Pazova and the Investment and Export Promotion Agency (SIEPA) is excellent.

(Bojan Stojadinovic)

- The municipality expressed a great interest in the project and issued us permits in a very short time. Construction works kicked off in October, and the plan is to finish them until March 31st. The contractor is the company Letac from Indjija. During the project implementation, we started cooperating with the Investment and Export Promotion Agency, and we are going to receive the state's subsidies of EUR 500,000 for hiring 100 workers – says Stojadinovic.

The future technology center is something that Serbia will be proud of, and a 4,000-square-meter production hall will be built on a land spanning 21,245 square meters.

- Our technology is familiar to forensics. We develop new products, new materials, new software for chips, data storage options and similar things in a sterile environment.

Engineers in Stara Pazova will first be developing a software for the parent company and rendering services in the smart card industry. The next phase will include the development of software, operative systems for chips, infrastructure, etc.

- Since the standards for crossing a border and border crossing security will be changed starting 2017, passports will get a new look, and new forms of border crossing security will be introduced. We are now preparing for these procedures, and that is the technology that will be produced in Serbia.

As our interlocutor explains, smart technology without infrastructure is like a car without roads.

- By signing an agreement in 2003 to introduce new identification documents, Serbia embarked on a serious project, and it still has a lot of work to do in that field. A serious technology requires an accompanying infrastructure. Identification documents (health care cars, ID cards, driver licenses) mean nothing if they don't take advantage of the benefits offered by the government administration. A biometric ID card must be a sort of a service benefiting citizens.

M.K.