Investors from Diaspora to be offered 150 projects in Serbia

(Srđan Srećković)

Serbian Minister of Diaspora Srđan Srećković announced yesterday (April 28, 2010) that that Ministry would offer potential investors from the Diaspora 150 concrete projects in Serbia to invest in.

He reminded that the Diaspora had invested about USD 550m in Serbia since 2000 and that the establishment of small and mid-sized enterprises led to employment of about 22,000 people.

Srđan Srećković said that Serbian Diaspora had sent USD 5.5bn to our country in 2009, or USD 700 per capita, which was over 15% of the gross national product (GNP).

Srećković pointed out at the opening of the first international conference on Serbian Diaspora Remittances that those funds were 10% higher against 2008 despite the estimates of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) that the amount of remittances from the migrants from East European countries would drop by 10%.

He estimated that Serbia received more money from the Diaspora at the times of economic turbulence and global crisis than in the periods of economic stability or prosperity.

The Minister specified that the highest amount of remittances came from Germany, Austria, Switzerland, the USA, Croatia and France, from which 32.2% of the Diaspora's money came.

- Unfortunately, major share of that money is spent on the personal needs of money order recipients, while minor share is invested in production, so that these remittances are not in the function of development of Serbia - Srećković pointed out.

The Vice-Governor of the National Bank of Serbia (NBS), Bojan Marković, said that the foreign currency remittances from the Diaspora compensated for high deficit in foreign-trade exchange, but he warned that that can also be a double-edged sword because that money was spent on various forms of personal consumption, including the procurement of imported products.

In his opinion, since major share of the money from the Diaspora enters Serbia illegally, it is necessary that banks lower the costs of transfer. It is also of great importance to Serbia to stimulate investing of that money.