Minister of Natural Resources, Mining and Spatial Planning Milan Bacevic signed yesterday with Russian Minister of Energy Alexander Novak a protocol that envisages a $300 million loan from Russia as aid to the Serbian budget for this year, and another $700 million for the next year.
Bacevic told Tanjug news agency that this document contains agreements on several points of cooperation which will be elaborated by working groups, as well as the issue of interest on the loan.
The agreements have been reached in principle and their implementation depends on the working groups, the Minister explained.
The protocol signed contains Serbia’s offer that a Russian company buys Zelezara Smederevo steelworks for USD 1, while the offer for strategic partnership between Russian Sberbank and Serbian Nova Agrobanka, presented in earlier talks, was not included in the protocol.
The Minister of Natural Resources, Mining and Spatial Planning said that the continuation of talks on Zelezara Smederevo steelworks is expected and confirmed that the potential Russian buyer is a very serious company.
However, Serbia remains open to possible offers from other companies.
By signing the protocol with Novak, Bacevic wrapped up his several-day visit to Moscow.
Source Serbia Gov.
