State and PKS are working seriously to ensure that Serbia joins the new global investment cycle in the production of batteries

Published on 12. December 2022., News

The president of the Chamber of Commerce of Serbia, Marko Čadež, said that the state and PKS are working seriously to ensure that Serbia joins the new global investment cycle in the production of batteries, electric cars and electric mobility, and added that there is interest from companies from Slovakia, Germany and South Korea to open here their plants.

He said that the exploitation of lithium is not a prerequisite for investors to come, but membership in the EU, because it is a market of 500 million people, and cited the example of Hungary and Poland, where companies from Asia are investing billions of euros in the construction of battery production facilities.

“In the new world, which is more regionalized than globalized, the biggest players are rapidly investing in European destinations and looking to produce according to all the standards prescribed by the EU in order to better position themselves on the most attractive global market of 500 million inhabitants. There is room for “Serbia, but there are some political preconditions. That’s why we have to seriously discuss with the EU about the urgent possible joining of the countries of the Western Balkans to the single market,” Čadež told the newspaper Politika.

Necessary discussion on lithium exploitation

He said that he did not know whether Rio Tinto had given up on the exploitation of lithium in Jadar, but he added that there must be a public discussion about such projects.

“The best solution, be it Rio Tinto or someone else, is to properly enter into a dialogue about all segments of the investment, not to allow either politicization or non-transparency of investors. Polarization is not a solution in complex matters, especially not in the economy and economy, where everything is connected according to the system of connected courts,” Čadež believes.

The president of the Chamber of Commerce said that for now, the fact that Serbia has not imposed sanctions on Russia, despite some requests from the EU to do so, has not affected the inflow of foreign investments.

“The fact is that almost a million people work in domestic and foreign companies that do business with partners in the EU and that 65 percent of our exports are placed on the EU market. I do not believe that the political leadership of Serbia will decide against the interests of its citizens. However, due to the difficult situation with energy sources it is important to somehow walk on the edge. And that is the most difficult job that our president does in a way that deserves every praise,” said Čadež, Euronews writes.

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