The state of Serbia awarded a subsidy of 6.4 million euros to the Finnish company PKC Wiring Systems, which covers one third of the firm’s investment in expanding the capacity of the cable factory in Smederevo.
The taxpayer subsidy was approved by a contract of December 18, 2019 between the PKC and the Serbian Ministry of Economy.
The value of the investment is 20 million euros, of which Serbia covers 32 percent, the contract states. The 6.4 million euros subsidy will be disbursed in five installments from 2020 to 2024.
The company is committed to hiring at least 1,200 new workers by the end of 2023, whose basic earnings will be at least 20 percent higher than the minimum.
The company has come under the spotlight in recent years because it received 7.5 million euros in job subsidies from 2014 to 2016.
Also, the production hall of this company was built by the local government of Smederevo by taking a loan of 7.8 million euros and selling buildings and land to PKC for 6.29 million – about 1.5 million euros less than the value of the loan.
PKC Wiring Systems from Smederevo is owned by the company of the same name in Finland, a member of the PKC Group operating in the automotive sector.
According to the contract, this group has facilities in Brazil, China, Germany, Lithuania, Mexico, Poland, Russia, Serbia and the United States.
In 2018/2019, the Group generated an estimated consolidated income of 1,191,772,000 euros and employed 28,632 employees, reports Nova Ekonomija.
