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The Government of the Republic of Serbia

In the service of citizens

Alena Limited builds textile plant in Vranje

Belgrade, 20 October 2006

An agreement on the realisation of the investment of UK company Alena Limited into Yumco from Vranje was signed today at the Serbian Investment and Export Promotion Agency (SIEPA). Under the agreement, Alena Limited which purchased the Sloboda plant will begin the construction of a new textile plant in place of the existing one, whose value will be €5 million.

Alena Limited will equip the new textile plant with state-of-the-art equipment and the factory will employ 3,000 workers, it will produce up to 100,000 garments a week, in the total value of €6 million per year.

During the construction of the new factory, Alena will lease one of the textile plants that belong to Yumco, where it will employ 700 local workers.

This UK company applied for a grant for encouraging investments, in line with the Decree on conditions and methods for attracting direct investments, implemented by SIEPA as part of the Serbian government's National Investment Plan. At a session held on October 13 it was decided to approve Alena €2,000 per employee, i.e. a total of €6 million.

Serbian Minister of Finance Mladjan Dinkic said at a press conference held at SIEPA that the construction of Yumco's Sloboda plant in Vranje will be the first greenfield investment for which the Serbian government will set aside funds from the National Investment Plan.

Recalling that the realisation of as many as five greenfield investments that will employ approximately 5,000 people has begun this week - two new factories have been opened in Valjevo and Uzice, and three are starting to be built in Vranje, Indjija and Kragujevac, Dinkic pointed out that the government is ready to support other Serbian giants that used to be socially-owned in this way too.

Director-General of Alena Limited Savas Jani explained that by building a plant in Vranje the company's intention is to expand the production of garments which already exists in the factory's plants in Romania, Vietnam, Moldavia and Syria.

Jani said that the cheap labour force is not the reason for Alena's arrival to Serbia and added that the company will not dismiss the existing management and personnel because its policy is to rely on the talent and working experience of employees in the countries it comes to.

President of the Vranje municipality Miroljub Stojcic said that at municipal level, everything is ready for the beginning of the project's realisation, specifying that infrastructure has been renovated and the decision has been made to free the investor from paying a fee to obtain the building licence.

Director-General of Yumco Milan Kljajic stated that the arrival of such a big investor is of great importance for Vranje, not only because it will bring access to new markets, technology and know-how and will employ a great number of young people, but also because it is a good signal to other investors to come to Serbia.