DINKIC: Sberbank ready to back Fiat's exports to Russia

(Mladjan Dinkic)

Serbian Minister of Finance and Economy Mladjan Dinkic met in Moscow on Friday (12 July 2013) with Sberbank CEO Herman Gref (executive director and the chairman of the Sberbnk Managing Board), Deputy CEO Sergey Gorkov and Fiat Group Head of Business Development and Chief Operating Officer for Europe, Middle East and Africa Alfredo Altavilla to talk about the future coooeration in the export of the Fiat cars made in Kragujevac to Russia.

Dinkic said that Sberbank was interested in taking up the main role in importing the cars made in the Kragujevac factory to Russia, voicing hisexpectation that the Russian government would soon approve an arrangement that Russian President Vladimir Putin and Serbian Prime Minister Ivica Dacic had agreed upon three months earlier.

- Fiat intends to sell the vehicles manufactured in Serbia in the Russian market, and our prime minister and Russian President Putin have agreed to grant Serbia the right to a one-time duty-free shipment of 10,000 cars to Russia. This is very important for Serbia, given that Fiat is our largest exporter. A large number of people are already working in the automotive industry, and this arrangement would create new jobs in Serbia - said Dinkic.

The finance and economy minister signed an agreement in Moscow on the establishment of cooperation between the Serbian Export Credit and Insurance Agency and Sberbank.