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The Government of the Republic of Serbia

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Ministers Parivodic, Bubalo, Ilic meet with German businessmen

Belgrade, 16 May 2006

Serbian Minister of Capital Investment Velimir Ilic, Economy Predrag Bubalo and International Economic Relations Milan Parivodic talked today in Düsseldorf with representatives of 25 German companies from the province of North Rhine-Westphalia, who are prospective investors in Serbia's economy.

Minister of Economy, SMEs and Energy of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia Christa Thoben also attended the meeting, after which Minister Parivodic told the press that the stated companies, such as Metro, ThyssenKrupp and Ruhrgas, are among Europe's strongest.

Parivodic said he is satisfied with the meeting since German businessmen have shown considerable interest in starting business relations with Serbia. He stressed that some of the German representatives were "the same people who recently visited Russian President Vladimir Putin with Chancellor Angela Merkel".

He pointed out that Serbia now has to create favourable conditions to attract these companies and make them see Serbia as their regional centre.

According to Parivodic, Serbia must make progress in certain aspects of its legislature to bring safety into greenfield investments and become a reliable partner to these companies. We are intensively working on these changes and they will soon be presented in Serbian parliament, said the Minister.

Greenfield investments, which are direct investments into new facilities or expansion of existing ones, are the first and primary objective of any country trying to attract foreign investment, since they create new production capacities and new jobs, as well as cause a transfer of technologies and knowledge.

Economic cooperation between North Rhine-Westphalia and Serbia is not large in volume, but it is interesting to note that some of the largest investors in Serbia, such as Henkel and Metro, are from this region.

North Rhine-Westphalia is the most populated and industrially most developed out of 16 German provinces (federal units), and has a total of 20 million people.

Last year, its GDP was €489 billion, making up more than a quarter of the entire Germany's GDP.

Parivodic stated that, bearing all this in mind, he proposed to Minister Thoben that a bilateral council be formed, such as the one with Greece, so that businesspeople can be informed on a regular basis. He added that the aim of today's meeting was to exchange information rather than reach deals on concrete matters.