According to the Serbian Finance Minister, Sinisa Mali, the total influx of foreign direct investments into Serbia in the first half of this year amounted to 1.9 billion euro, a 31% increase relative to the same period last year.
A few days ago, the Financial Times reported that Serbia was the world’s leading foreign direct investment country in relation to the size of its economy.
According to the latest rankings from 2019, Serbia ranks first in received FDI, with an index of 11.92 points, or 1.33 points more than last year. The published study states that last year, the country attracted 107 foreign direct investment projects, 26 more than in 2017.
With a rating of 11.92, Serbia attracts almost 12 times more foreign direct investments than what is expected from the economy of that size. Serbia overtook Mozambique in terms of index value and climbed one place in comparison to 2017, according to the British newspaper’s study.
Last year, the main sectors in Serbia that attracted foreign direct investments were automotive components, food and tobacco, textiles and real estate. Together, they accounted for more than a half, or 54%, of the total FDI projects.
According to the Serbian National Bank, last year, the majority of foreign direct investments came from France (710.7 million euro), followed by Hong Kong (434.5 million), the Netherlands (317.5 million), Germany (263.7 million) and Russia (237.3 million). Looking at the segments in which foreign investors are investing most, the data show that 924.8 million euro were invested in production, 660.1 million euro in transport and storage, followed by financial activities, construction and mining.
The growth of foreign direct investments in Serbia is a direct consequence of a number of factors: the country’s political stability, improved infrastructure, a relatively cheap and educated workforce, openness to trade, as well as a number of industrial areas, where new factories are built or existing ones are expanded, which are located close to large cities.
Source; Serbian Monitor
