Serbia could attract around EUR 2 billion of direct foreign investments in 2013 mostly due to the announced investments from the United Arab Emirates in the areas of energy and car industry, and sale of the state-owned property which is not being used.
“We believe that it is realistic to expect that around EUR 2 billion of direct foreign investments will be attracted in 2013, and the optimism is based on the information that has been known by now regarding the Emirates’ interest in the energy sector,” Bozidar Laganin, director of the Serbia Investment and Export Promotion Agency (SIEPA), said in a statement for Tanjug.
We should not forget about the real sector that is all companies in the areas of car industry, light industry, textile industry, leather industry, footwear industry, confectionary, and chemical industry, Laganin said.
He said that the government has plans to sell the property which it does not use, but it is very attractive for the investors who are active in the real estate sector, primarily hotel operators.
“Bearing all these in mind, we truly believe that this figure of EUR 2 billion is realistic, of course assuming that we have macroeconomic stability and institutions committed to work which seek direct foreign investments,” the SIEPA director said.
Commenting the assessments of certain domestic analysts that there will be no sustainable development unless Serbia secures EUR 5 billion of direct foreign investments, Laganin said that this is possible and doable provided domestic investors are helped to increase investments.
“This would be possible if we created conditions such as, for instance, lower interest rate on loans, better export program, and provided companies with an easier access to modern technologies,” he said.
Source Tanjug
