With its strategic location in the heart of the Balkans, a favorable business environment, a skilled workforce, competitive operating costs and investment incentives, Serbia has attracted Turkish investors’ interest, which is already showing concrete results, Gulcinaj Mumcu, trade adviser at the Turkish Embassy in Belgrade, said.
Turkey’s investments in 2011 were worth only one million dollars, while this year that figure reached 250 million dollars, according to Mumcu.
History and business
Trade between the two countries is on the rise. This is supported by the fact that in the whole of 2020, despite the Covid-19 pandemic, the volume of foreign trade amounted to a record 1.5 billion dollars. The Free Trade Agreement significantly contributed to that success. According to the Turkish Bureau of Statistics (TUIK), in the first nine months of 2021, Turkey’s trade with Serbia increased by 37.9 percent, reaching 1.4 billion dollars.
“Relations between Turkey and Serbia are based on an extremely rich and deeply rooted common history. The common tradition and customs provided a suitable ground for business and friendly relations. That gives a huge impetus to our mutual trade and economic relations with Serbia, as well as in all other areas,” Mumcu points out.
More than 1,300 companies with Turkish capital operate in Serbia, according to the Turkish Embassy. Their companies are most active in the textile and clothing industry, automotive, construction and machinery industry, wholesale / retail, banking sector, as well as in the tourism services and healthcare sector.
Hotels as a new chance
They see an opportunity for new investments in the field of energy, hospitality, agriculture and animal husbandry. On the other hand, our construction companies have realized large and important projects such as the construction of airports, subways, highways, industrial facilities, stadiums, natural gas and oil refineries, power plants, and in recent years they have shown increasing interest in Serbia. Construction companies from Turkey are working on 40 projects in Serbia, and the value of the contracted works is 819.4 million dollars.
The Embassy of Turkey says that they are ready to participate in the next period in infrastructure modernization projects in Serbia.
“The fact is that we can do a lot together. We are currently reaping the fruits of our political, economic and commercial relations, which have been developing rapidly over the last ten years. We are determined to increase the volume of foreign trade in 2021 to two billion dollars, and then to five billion dollars in the coming period,” Mumcu points out.
She estimates that the cooperation with the Government of Serbia and PKS is successful, stating that it is important to activate the Mixed Turkish-Serbian Chamber of Commerce, founded in 2017.
“We are convinced that we will set new records every year, maintaining the momentum we have achieved in trade and investments in a very short time. We are determined to continue this cooperation and to work together to find new opportunities that will benefit the interests of both countries, businessmen, companies and investors. Increasing joint activities, such as organizing fairs, trade delegations and similar activities that bring together business people from the two countries, will have a positive impact on the scope of our business,” Mumcu concluded.
Turkey mostly exports textiles, products from the automotive and machine industry, white goods, iron and steel, as well as fresh fruits and vegetables, and imports rubber, tobacco, copper and plastic, and products from the machine industry from our country, Novosti reports.
