Minister of Economy and Regional Development Nebojsa Ciric today began a five-day official visit to the United States during which he will visit New York, Washington and Chicago.
Ciric will meet in Washington with Congressman co-chairman of the Serbian caucus in the Congress and representative of the Serbian-US Business Council Dan Burton and members of the Serbian caucus.
In the State Department, Ciric will meet with US Assistant Secretary of State for Economy, Energy and Business Jose W. Fernandez.
During the visit, the Minister will meet with investors already present in Serbia, but also with potential investors who will be presented with the economic and investment potential of Serbia.
The United States is one of the largest foreign investors in Serbia whose total investment has amounted to approximately $1.5 billion.
According to the National Bank of Serbia (NBS), net foreign direct investment from the United States in money in the period from 2000 to August 2011 stand at $267.8 million.
A number of US investments in Serbia, however, came through their subsidiary companies in the Netherlands.
The Netherlands is currently the second-ranked foreign investor with investments of $1.833 billion, and a significant portion of these investments is actually the American capital.
The largest US investments include those by Philip Morris, U.S. Steel, Pepsi Co, Coca-Cola, Ball Packaging Corporation, Tyler Cooper and Microsoft.
In 2005, Microsoft opened its development centre in Belgrade, which had a great symbolic importance for Serbia.
This year was marked by the arrival of new US investors both in service and in the manufacturing sector (Cooper Tires, Johnson Controls, NCR, Sitel) despite the negative impact of the crisis on the volume of investments in the region and beyond.
Also, in times of crisis, the already present investors continued with significant investments.
U.S. Steel invested approximately €60 million in the new equipment for environmental protection in Smederevo in the past two years.
Ball Packaging invested €35 million in expanding capacities, which allowed the opening of 40 new jobs.
Serbian exports to the United States include metal products, tyres for agricultural vehicles, defence industry products, confectionery, dried, frozen fruits and fruit products, edible mushrooms, and alcoholic beverages.
The largest Serbian exporters to the United States in 2010 include: Prvi Partizan Uzice, Sevojno copper mill, Hemofarm Vrsac, Rumaguma Ruma, Van Drunen Farms, Kragujevac Zastava Arms and Delta DMD.
Source emg.rs
