Vucic presents contract with Etihad

(Aleksandar Vucic)

At the press conference at the Government, the Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic presented contracts with and El Ravafed. At the beginning of the conference, he said that today UAE poured agreed billion dollars to Serbia.

Aleksandar Vucic said that obligation to present the contracts is not the result of the request of different interest groups but the obligation to citizens of Serbia who, due to media writings, started doubting the contract is hiding something.

Presenting the contract with Etihad on takeover of Serbian national JAT airline, the Prime Minister mentioned the contract was signed since the Government of Serbia knew the risks passengers are transported with.

He illustrated that, only four out of seven JAT Boeings737-300 take off today.

- All governments knew what kind of problem that was. We knew well the risks in passengers transport. Out of seven planes, four were disused since they are not to be used – Vucic said.

The Prime Minister said that JAT has been a polygon for party staff election for years.

- If we had not taken steps, JAT would have had to shut down which would result in economic and social losses, deterioration of the image of Serbia because the national airline is a country’s mirror – the Prime Minister said.

Explaining the reasons why the Government of Serbia opted for Etihad, the UAE company, Vucic said that it is the last year’s world’ best company and that it has been top three-ranked for years along with Turkish Airlines and Lufthansa.

Thanks to the contract with Etihad, as he said, 10 planes will be procured at price lowered for EUR 14 mil which is a total saving of EUR 140 mil.

- We are happy because Air Serbia has better catering than Lufthansa and it will remain thus – Vucic said.

He also published the Contact on agricultural land rent with UAE and announced that the contract as well as other contracts will be available at the site of the Government of Serbia, five minutes after the press conference

The Prime Minister previously said that everything will be done so that in 2015 and 2016 the trend of indebtness of Serbia would decrease.

Speaking of attracting foreign investments, the Prime Minister said that Serbia is planning to keep work places, to provide market for our products and safety in the next 10-20 years.

-However, my commitment resulted from the fact to publish contracts which were not planned to be published, not only because they contain criminal or secrets. My commitment is to publish them not because of different interest groups but for all the citizens of Serbia because more than 99 % started doubting what it hides and whether it is good or no – Vucic said.