The good investment climate in Serbia and the AP Vojvodina

On September 3rd, the Deputy Head of the Provincial government, Djordje Milićević opened the Invest in Vojvodina conference at which the representatives of embassies, foreign chambers of commerce and other participants from the country and abroad were presented with the investment potential of the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina.

“Overall, Serbia and Vojvodina have had a good investment climate over the last few years. This is evidenced by the figures and accomplished results, which is why we had a 4.5% growth of the gross domestic product last year, the highest in the previous decade. The fact that the Financial Times has declared Serbia the number one destination for foreign direct investments in 2018 shows that we are heading in the right direction”, Mr Milićević said, adding that the evidence that a really good investment climate was created could be seen in the fact that our companies were doing well and that external trade, industrial production, service sector and tourism were growing.

Mr Milićević also pointed out that, in the last three and a half years, i.e. since the current Provincial government came to power, serious strides have been made in creating an investment environment in Vojvodina. As he pointed out, the Vojvodina Development Agency was formed, which helps and encourages investments of both domestic and foreign investors with its incentive measures. These measures, as Mr Milićević said, encourage and subsidize new employment or procurement of new equipment, technological modernization, etc.

 

“These are all good signals, but we must not stop there. I believe that this conference will also give some answers to the questions regarding how to proceed and what measures, steps and instruments we need to implement to increase the number of investments and perpetuate the dynamic economic growth,” Mr Milićević added.

He also underlined that the GDP growth was expected to reach 3.5% this year and that a good year for agriculture would further boost that growth.

“Figures in the first six months show that positive trends are continuing in the food industry, where an 8.8% growth was recorded in Vojvodina. The value of the external trade in the same period amounted to 6.2 billion euro, of which our exports amounted to 2.9 billion euro and are growing at a rate of 8.3%,” the Deputy Head of the Vojvodinian government, Djordje Milićević said, adding that our economy was recovering and growing and that he believed that that process would be further expedited in collaboration with the business sector.

On behalf of the organizers, the President of the Chamber of Commerce of Vojvodina, Boško Vučurević, and the President of the Color Press Group, Robert Čoban also addressed the conference.

Mr Vučurević underlined that the measures implemented at the state and provincial levels, in cooperation with chambers of commerce and other institutions, gave very good economic results. The fact that the trade growth amounted to 10% in the first seven months of this year, that is, to over 7 billion euro, of which exports from Vojvodina amounted to 3.5 billion euro, means that things are done well.

Robert Čoban underlined that the conference brought together everybody who could contribute to a more active increase of foreign and domestic investments in our economy, including the media representatives, the chamber of commerce system, all levels of government, ambassadors and representatives of the business sector.

The Invest in Vojvodina conference was held in the form of three panels – an ambassadorial one, which brought together ambassadors from the region and beyond who exchanged experiences and gave examples of good practice, followed by a chamber panel and a panel dedicated to the circular economy.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.