Government wants to bring Swedish "Ikea" to Serbia - memorandum of understanding soon

The Government of Serbia intends to sign the memorandum of understanding with "Ikea". In that way, the most famous Swedish furniture manufacturer would agree to build a factory in Serbia within the next five years. In return, the Government would not announce the tender for sale of the land of the Cattle Breeding Institute, which "Ikea" found suitable for construction of its retail center. Instead, the land would be sold by means of direct agreement since it is a very important investment.

The precondition for signing of the memorandum is correction of General Land-Utilization Plan and change in purpose of the land of the Cattle Breeding Institute from agricultural to building land. The Government would then pass the regulation on confiscation of that land, which would be run by the Directorate for Property of Republic of Serbia. If the agreement on memorandum was reached, the land would be offered for sale through direct agreement.

- Everything depends on whether "Ikea" accepts this proposal - the source close to the Government told "Blic".

This proposal will be forwarded to the Management of "Ikea" within the next few days.

Dragan Skalušević, the Regional Director of "Ikea" for Serbia, Croatia and Slovenia, says that they don't have such information.

- We said everything before. I can not give any comments now because we are still negotiating. Whatever the Government of Serbia decides, it should be made official, and we will then give our comments - Skalušević told "Blic".

At the beginning of this month, "Ikea" sent the letter of intent to the Government of Serbia to inform it on the company's interest in 35 ha of land of the Cattle Breeding Institute. The memorandum would be its response. The parcel of the Cattle Breeding Institute occupies 70 ha, and it is situated on the right side of Belgrade-Zagreb highway, before the airport, from the direction of the capital city of Serbia.