SIEPA sticks to its estimate of EUR 2 billion investments in 2013

Serbia Investment and Export Promotion Agency (SIEPA) sticks to its estimate that Serbia could attract about EUR 2 billion worth of investments in 2013, SIEPA CEO Bozidar Laganin said today.

At the conference "Invest in Serbia," organized by the daily Privredni Pregled, he said that based on the FDI inflow so far and current activities in that field, the estimate made in early 2013 was realistic. Laganin specified that EUR 330 million worth of foreign direct investment had been attracted in the first quarter of the year, stressing that SIEPA had inked investment projects worth EUR 200 million through two public invitations to tender.

Aside from these investments, the SIEPA director also mentioned the agreements signed with the Al Dahra company, which he said to be worth about USD 400 million, as well as a successful public invitation to tender for the construction of small hydroelectric power plants in 317 locations with its total value estimated at about EUR 500 million.

Laganin pointed out that Serbia had attracted EUR 1.5 billion through the Direct Investment Support Program since 2006, adding that 47,500 new jobs had been created in that period through 254 projects.

- A total of EUR 270 million has so far been earmarked for this purpose in the budget of Serbia - he said and underlined that every newly created job cost an average of EUR 4,500.

Laganin added that Serbia had to accept new challenges and investors' trends as well as solve the problems standing in the way of investment implementation if it wanted to take more serious steps forward.