The American “Wall Street Journal” marked Serbia as a country with excellent conditions for living and working, and thanks to that, foreigners from all over the world choose Serbia as their home. Director of the Agency for Business Registers, Milan Lučić, tells RTS that since February 24, 2,134 entrepreneurial shops, as well as 789 companies, have been established in the APR. Most of them deal with computer programming.
The Wall Street Journal states that among the countries that have opened their doors to foreigners, Serbia, as a small Balkan nation, has emerged as a major destination for technology firms and highly qualified professionals. Tens of thousands of engineers, programmers, entrepreneurs, artists and scientists have come to our country in recent months.
Milan Lučić said that this is happening because of the preconditions that our country offers, because of the regulations it has established for foreigners.
“When a foreigner looks at Serbia, he sees that we are a candidate country for membership in the European Union. He has the perception that we harmonize our policy, internal regulations, norms with EU norms. Also, the IT and telecommunication infrastructure is well developed in our country and the tax system is an important item. These are all segments and aspects that foreigners look at and perceive if they could start a business in our country. Also, what is extremely important is that the procedures for starting a business in our country have been significantly accelerated and facilitated, and they are even for foreigners and the condition is that they get a residence and work visa for one year”, Lučić explains.
The most represented IT companies
It indicates that as of February 24, 2,134 entrepreneurial businesses and 789 companies were established in the APR.
“If we look at the activity codes, the first place in terms of frequency of occurrence is computer programming, followed by consulting activities related to management and business, consulting activities related to information technologies. Then non-specialized wholesale trade and other specific activities of the construction industry”, he explains.
It indicates that a large number of foreigners do business in our country, with the Chinese, Russians, Italians, Slovenians, Germans and Turks leading the way.
“This year, the Russians came in second place in terms of the frequency of establishment of business entities in our country. Chinese citizens are still in first place, Italians are in third place, followed by Slovenians, Croats, Germans, Turks”, says Lučić.
The majority of Russians deal with IT technologies
It indicates that most of the Russians who came to Serbia after February 24 are engaged in activities in the field of information technology.
“IT is dominant and that is very important for our country, because in that domain it will increase the competitiveness of Serbia in all the markets with which we will operate. This is the greatest potential of our country”, assesses Lučić.
Luskoft, which develops software based on artificial intelligence for banks, telecommunications and car manufacturers such as BMW and Volkswagen, has moved 1,000 senior engineers from Russia to Belgrade, and is in the process of bringing in another 1,000.
Speaking about the conditions that apply to foreigners who establish companies, firms, and business associations in Serbia, he states that they are completely identical to those for domestic persons.
“That company that is being founded operates completely like a domestic company. Tax regulations are completely identical. There are benefits for those companies, I would say premium class, that employ the most skilled people, and these are the subsidies for the employment of top experts that the state signed last year”, says Lučić, RTS writes.
