The Sevojno copper rolling mill has about 1,200 employees and plans to hire new, primarily young, highly educated professionals. They ended last year with a revenue of almost 200 million euros, of which 150 million is the profit from exports to the countries of the European Union and the United States.
A large number of young professionals left Serbia for work. Engineers Sasa Milivojevic and Dragan Prokopijevic also had offers, but they are told that it is more important for them to improve the economy of their homeland with their knowledge.
“It’s not all about money. I think that there is some interpersonal warmth here, so maybe that’s even more crucial,” Dragan Prokoprijevic points out.
Engineer Sasa Milivojevic points out that there is an inherited system in the Copper Rolling Mill that has lasted for sixty or seventy years, where the rights of workers and annual vacations and holidays are respected.
The owner of Valjaonica also has American citizenship, and in order to keep young professionals in the country, he tries to motivate the diaspora to invest in Serbia.
Desko Nikitović, the owner of the Sevojno Copper Rolling Mill, says that very often in Chicago and America, he shares his own experiences with our people who are considering the possibility of investing in Serbia.
“I tell them that they should do it because they come from these parts, they understand culture and people, and it would be good for Serbia, especially for them to invest here,” Nikitović emphasizes.
The US Ambassador to Serbia, Anthony Godfrey, estimates that the copper rolling mill is an example of economic importance, responsible excavation of raw materials and their further processing in western Serbia.
Although the Serbian company Valjaonica bakra today operates according to the American model, from the period of socialism, as the most important legacy, the attitude towards employees has been preserved.
Source: rts.rs
