In the budget proposal for 2024, borrowing from the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), an institution of which Serbia has been a member since 2019, is planned for the first time.
Namely, the state is ready to guarantee the joint stock company Energy company of Serbia (EPS) a loan worth up to 135 million euros for the construction project of the solar power plant “Klenovnik”.
According to the budget proposal for 2024, it is planned that the state can issue guarantees of up to EUR 1.5 billion for a total of 17 projects, eight of which are EPS projects.
Through guarantees, the state, among other things, intends to support EPS for the projects of the construction of the Kostolac wind farm and the Buk-Bijela hydroelectric plant, the revitalization of the Đerdap 2 and Bistrica hydroelectric plants, and the reconstruction of the Potpeć hydroelectric plant – but it is planned that all these guarantees issued to “old friends”, such as the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), the German Development Bank (KfW), the European Investment Bank (EIB) or domestic and foreign commercial banks.
The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) has so far not participated in the financing of projects in Serbia, which in 2019 became the 73rd non-regional member of that institution.
This relatively young Beijing-based multilateral development bank began operations in 2016 with 57 founding members (37 regional and 20 non-regional). By the end of 2020, according to its official portal, it had 103 member states whose economies represent approximately 79 percent of the global population and 65 percent of global GDP.
In May of this year, AIIB President and Vice President Jin Liqun and Konstantin Limitovskiy visited Belgrade. At the meeting with Prime Minister Ana Brnabić, Liqun assessed that Serbia is a country that is safe for investments and cooperation.
Liqun then emphasized that the AIIB is interested in projects that are traditional in their business, such as infrastructure and railways, but also sees room for cooperation in the areas of digitization, artificial intelligence and biotechnology.
At the meeting attended by the Minister of Science, Technological Development and Innovation Jelena Begović, Prime Minister Ana Brnabić emphasized that she sees the future primarily in the field of biotechnology, i.e. the construction of the BIO4 campus, which should connect areas important for the sustainable development of the country, and pointed out that Serbia has ready projects that it can implement in cooperation with that multilateral development institution. She added that she sees AIIB primarily as a partner in the implementation of future projects.
Sign up for business updates & specials.
