Complete production of “punto” to be moved to Serbia – company "Fiat Srbija" to wait for some better time

The enigma concerning the deal of the century in Kragujevac should be resolved next week. The high delegation of “Fiat”, led by the Vice President, Alfred Altavilla, and the President of the Administrative Board of “Fiat Srbija”, Giovanni de Philips, will come to Serbia to present concrete plans for the Kragujevac-based factory in 2009.

Although Fiat’s plans for ex-Zastava are still kept secret, "Novac" learnt from the sources close to the automobile factory in Kragujevac that one of the most realistic options was postponement of investments and moving of complete production of “punto” to Serbia. This option is also well-known to the circles close to executive authorities in Serbia.

Namely, "Fiat" would ask for postponement of realization of both 200m EUR worth of investment and production of new model and, in return, complete production of popular “punto” would be moved to Serbia. Production would grow to 50,000 pieces of this popular city automobile a year. In order to keep its price low, Italians would insist that as many parts as possible are bought from local manufacturers. This solution would buy "Fiat" time because the funds for investments are getting smaller because of the financial crisis. At the same time, Serbian side would be satisfied because numerous manufacturers of car parts would take part in the production process.

The President of the Independent trade union of the factory, Zoran Mihajlović, says for "Novac" that he heard about that possibility and that, in case it is suggested, he will ask for new negotiations with company "Fiat".

- That would practically mean that "Fiat" failed to meet its obligations and that we would have to start new negotiations with “Fiat” and ask for protection of our rights. That would mean that Serbia and “Fiat” were not going to form the joint venture, but partnership. In any case, we are not going to be exclusive and we are ready to talk about any solutions. Moving of production of "punto" to Serbia is better than producing nothing at all. Besides, we would hire local companies to produce parts, which would improve our economy – says Mihajlović.