Belgrade: The Serbia-Slovenia Business Forum is being held in Belgrade today with the participation of the largest companies from the two countries, and the director of the Strategic Analysis, Services and Internationalization Sector at the Serbian Chamber of Commerce Mihajlo Vesovic said at the opening that Serbia and Slovenia are constantly improving economic cooperation. trade in 2021 amounted to 1.4 billion euros.
The specificity of the Slovenian-Serbian cooperation is not only reflected in the trade exchange, but is also realized in the domain of investments, said Vesović at the forum “Integration of the Western Balkans into the EU economic space”.
On this occasion, he pointed out that Slovenian companies in our market recognized the development opportunity and were among the first in Europe to invest in the automotive and food industry in Serbia.
Vesovic said that Slovenia provides strong support to Serbia’s accession to the EU and added that this country also provides support for the development of the economy of the entire Western Balkans.
“We can say that in the last 10 years we have had a constant growth of economic cooperation and it is somewhere between seven and eight percent annually, and the growth of exports and imports,” he said.
He pointed out that the year of the pandemic has greatly improved cooperation, but that it is now returning to the level from 2019.
According to Vesović, Slovenia is the 11th most important economic partner for Serbia, while Serbia is among the top 10 most important trade partners of Slovenia.
He also stated that Slovenia reached 88 percent of the EU’s GDP, and Serbia 42 percent.
He says that the Western Balkans has a market of 18 million inhabitants and that the GDP per capita is slightly lower than in Serbia and amounts to 5,600 euros, and at the level of 36.4 percent of the EU average.
The business forum was organized by the Serbian Chamber of Commerce in cooperation with the Slovenian Institute for Strategic Solutions.
The largest companies from Serbia and Slovenia participated in the forum with the aim of shedding light on key issues and initiatives of economic cooperation in the region, with a special emphasis on economic cooperation between the two countries.
According to the data presented at the forum, more than 4,000 companies are participating in economic cooperation between Serbia and Slovenia.
According to Slovenian institutions, 2,000 companies owned by Serbian companies and citizens are registered in Slovenia, and more than 500 Serbian companies currently have serious business operations on the Slovenian market, Dnevnik reports.
