“A Balkan state full of construction sites.” With this title, the Slovenian “Delo” briefly describes today’s Serbia, recalling the large investments that are being made in the middle of the corona within the 14 billion euro state program “Serbia 2025” and emphasizing the openness of the Serbian economy and progress in the field of digitalization.
In this week’s extensive analysis of the current and possibilities for future economic cooperation, the influential Ljubljana daily through a conversation with Marko Cadez, president of the Serbian Chamber of Commerce, concludes that Serbia “will continue to be attractive for capital from Slovenia, and that Slovenia can expect more from that country. The text emphasizes that the two chambers together are looking for ways for joint companies from Slovenia and Serbia to appear on third markets and to use digital tools to maintain business contacts and take advantage of economic awakening in conditions when fairs are not held, when business meetings are not possible.
“At the time of the corona, we were all pushed five years forward, we practically did overnight what we previously thought would be impossible for a long time. Remember the debate before the corona on digital health? Remote medical diagnostics, previously hindered by a series of even legal challenges, has suddenly become our reality,” said Cadez, stating that 30 percent of companies in Serbia digitalized the sale of goods and services during the health crisis.
Delo, presenting Cadez as the president of the joint chamber of commerce of the Western Balkans, points to the effects of regional cooperation. He points out that “Little Schengen is still alive”, that various regional initiatives, which enjoy the principled political support of the countries in the region, are gradually being implemented and upgraded. That they are designed to “simplify business between the Balkan countries”, by enabling “easier border crossing for passengers and transport of goods, mutual recognition of veterinary certificates and harmonization of working hours of phytosanitary inspections at border crossings”.
“These are not big steps, but they are very important for simplifying business and life of people in the region. We managed to make the passage of goods within the region significantly simplified, somewhere it is even easier than between the countries of the Schengen area,” Cadez said in the conversation and assessed that it helped alleviate the problem of closed borders due to the corona virus.
According to Cadez, this crisis has once again shown us how important regional cooperation is for our small economies.
“Now it is more important than ever and I am glad that Slovenian businessmen openly support the mini-Schengen initiative, which will ensure the free movement of people, goods, services and capital,” Cadez said in an interview with Delo.
It is estimated that this year, due to the health crisis, the common goal of increasing the total trade exchange of goods and services between Serbia and Slovenia from last year’s 1.7 billion euros to two billion will not be achieved, the Ljubljana daily points to great opportunities for economic cooperation, especially the increase in mutual investments and states that “Serbia is open for investments and expects the same from others”.
Delo conveys Cadez’s assessment that the great openness of the economy towards foreign capital has contributed to the technological progress of Serbian companies, and that they are now transferring that to companies in which they invest outside of Serbia.
“That is how Miodrag Kostic built his bank in Serbia, among other things, on the experience and best practice of foreign banks operating in our country, taking over their knowledge and technology which he now transfers to the operations of Slovenian banks owned by MK Group – Gorenjska banka,” Cadez explained.
According to him, Slovenians do not lose anything with these investments, because in tourism and banking, companies need domestic staff for successful business.
Delo data from the conversation, illustrating that more and more Serbian companies – 4,400 last year – traded with Slovenian partners, that about 2,000 companies with Serbian capital were registered in Slovenia, and that the number of smaller companies from Serbia seeking their opportunity in Slovenian increasing market, where Serbian goods are increasingly present and that “Mercator” is a particularly important channel for that.
“The total value of Serbian investments in Slovenia has reached half a billion euros, of which a quarter are investments of Miodrag Kostic’s MK Group in tourism and banking,” Delo writes.
As examples of recent successful Serbian investments (with investments of MK Group “Comtrade” and “Nectar”), Cadez cited “Agromarket’s” takeover of Ljubljana’s “Semenarna”, the investment of Nis “Put Inzenjering” in the production of prefabricated concrete structures and the company “Sport Vision” which bought “Thomas Sport”. Also, “Arena Sport”, majority owned by Telekom Srbija, has launched three television programs in Slovenia in cooperation with Telekom Slovenija, and the Serbian startup “Strawberry” is negotiating cooperation with several Slovenian companies. As important for businessmen and investors, he emphasized that Air Serbia was the first to return to Ljubljana, after the suspension of flights.
“The experience of Serbian companies on the Slovenian market so far is positive, so that Cadez envisages even more investments from his country in his grandfather’s homeland,” states “Delo”. Apart from the traditional sectors of cooperation, new Serbian investments in Slovenia, Cadez expects, also in the construction and ICT sector.
From the point of view of Serbia, digitalization and green economy are mentioned in the text as areas of future cooperation in which Slovenia has extensive experience, and according to Cadez, Serbia is especially attractive for Slovenian capital in the field of high technologies, due to highly qualified staff and the lowest profit tax from innovative activities which, in combination with other incentives, can be reduced to zero. In addition, he reminded that Serbia attracts Slovenian investors and exporters because of the free trade agreements that enable them duty-free access to markets with a total population of 1.4 billion.
As, among other things, the text reminds, about 1,200 companies with majority Slovenian capital are registered in Serbia, the total investment from this country, with NLB’s investment in the purchase of Komercijalna Banka will reach 1.6 billion euros, Slovenian investors employ 25,000 people, on the list are the largest exporters and “successfully promote Serbia as a favorable friendly environment,” PKS reports.
