Serbia to become supplier for leading car manufacturers – SEE Automotive – Connect & Supply 2016 conference held in Novi Sad

Serbia's advantages include the proximity of the EU, qualified workforce and the competitive strength of manufacturing costs, and with added innovations, modern technologies and design, companies from Serbia and the region could become even more involved with the manufacture of the world's most modern cars, as a supplier for the world's leading car manufacturers.

This was the main point emphasized at the SEE Automotive – Connect & Supply 2016 conference, which took place on May 24-25 in Novi Sad and drew some of the world's key agents in the automotive industry.

This first automotive industry conference in Southeastern Europe was attended by representatives of 110 companies from 16 countries (Serbia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Croatia, Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Slovakia, Turkey...) and representatives of Fiat, BMW, Volkswagen, Federal Mogul, Grammer, Bosch, Magna, Mitsubishi Electric, Gebruder Weiss, Grammer system, Evonik, JSC Plastik and others.

The representatives of these big companies emphasized that they were very open to and very interested in co-operating with the regional suppliers, which was confirmed by the fact that the conference organizers, Vojvodina Investment Promotion Fund (VIP Fund) and Serbian Automotive Cluster, managed to set up more than four hundred B2B meetings between the car manufacturers and the regional suppliers.

Thanks to Serbia's long tradition in this industry, a lot of local companies have already positioned themselves as partners of the European automotive industry in the manufacture of rubber products, plastic, rolling-element bearings etc, but the conference could surely help Serbia to position itself even better within the automotive support industry in the coming period, says VIP Fund in its announcement.

It was announced that all participants had confirmed to the VIP Fund that they were extremely satisfied, that they had managed to establish numerous contacts and that new business co-operations were sure to follow as a result of the conference. VIP Fund too managed to schedule several visits by foreign companies, which showed interest in possible investments in Serbia.