Serbian investment offensive – Next step is to attract investors from Britain, Russia, America and the Emirates

An economic and diplomatic offensive aimed at attracting more foreign investors will undoubtedly mark late October in Serbia. Serbia's government and economic delegations are presenting the potentials of our country on Tuesday in London and a day after in Moscow, while the first deputy prime minister of the Government of Serbia, Aleksandar Vucic, is discussing new projects in the United Arab Emirates.

Given this year’s somewhat more than half a billion euros of foreign, direct investments, this kind of offensive is no surprise because the government set high objectives for itself and so far investments have not been sufficient to have both new calendar and fiscal year follow the rhythm of announced economic measures.

Globally, an 18 % decrease in direct investments was registered last year, which proves that it is more difficult to get any project grant.

Along with that, as both government and state officials as well as experts point out, Serbia must eliminate corruption as one of the main obstacles to investments, but also to create a favorable and attractive business environment.

The Investment Day of Serbia, organized by the British-Serbian Chamber of Commerce, is held in London for the first time.

The Serbian government will host the event, while a strong, business and economic team led by Prime Minister Ivica Dacic will present Serbia as an attractive investment destination, primarily for investments in the automotive, energy, agriculture and telecommunications sectors.

A day after, in cooperation with the Chamber of Industry and Commerce of of the Russian Federation, the Serbian Chamber of Commerce is organizing the biggest investment conference so far in Moscow, where more than 70 projects from Serbia valued at almost EUR 7 billion will be presented. This event will also be attended by Tomislav Nikolic, the president of Serbia.

According to the organizer, projects are mainly related to the fields of energy, infrastructure, agriculture, industry and tourism with the most important among them being energy projects valued at EUR 4.5 billion.

The first flight operated by Serbia's new flag carrier Air Serbia to Abu Dhabi took Serbian First Deputy Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic to the UAE to discuss and negotiate new investments in Serbia.

Late last weekend we could hear the news that the Arab company Strata, which is engaged in the production of car parts, expressed its interest in relocating a part of its production to Serbia.

Agriculture and energy were the main conversation topics at a meeting between the Serbian delegation and its host in Abu Dhabi. Even though there are still no specific announcements, the two sides confirmed that they had discussed the purchase of land in Serbia, water supply systems and modern technologies in agriculture.

IT sector, investments in a computer chip plant and the production of semi-conductors were on the agenda again.

Serbia's IT sector is obviously becoming increasingly interesting to foreign investors. American companies have gradually been developing its presence in the local market and, after a recent visit of the Serbian delegation to USA, the American ambassador in Serbia, Michael Kirby, hopes that some of the American IT global companies could invest or announce bigger investment in Serbia as early as in the next few years.

Apart from the IT sector, energy is the second potentially big arena for foreign investments in Serbia. The competent minister, Zorana Mihajlovic, announced a couple of interested investors with whom pre-contracts could be signed by the end of the year.

The governor of NBS, Jorgovanka Tabakovic, is also expecting a large inflow of foreign investments in Serbia, more precisely, their recovery.

Breaking down this year’s net inflow of foreign investments totaling EUR 584 mil as of January 1, 2014 until the last October weekend, she said that in the upcoming years, industry, agriculture, trade and financial sector are essential investment targets in Serbia.

A fight for the recovery is in progress at the investment forums and meetings where Serbia is these days presenting itself to potential investors.