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The Government of the Republic of Serbia

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Pre-contract on construction of car parts factory in Svilajnac signed

Svilajnac, 15 July 2008

Serbian Deputy Prime Minister for European Integration and Minister of Science and Technological Development Bozidar Djelic attended today the signing of a pre-contract on the construction of a car parts factory in Svilajnac.

The pre-contract was signed by representatives of the Svilajnac municipality, the German company Reum, headed by Ritter Rolf and the Slovenian company Grah Automotive, led by Robert Grah.

Nearly €10 million will be invested in the car parts factory and it will employ 500 workers. The factory will produce car parts for international car makers such as Audi, BMW, Mercedes and Volkswagen.

Djelic said at the signing ceremony that Reum is a leading European firm in the automobile industry, which will build a factory that will bring exports worth €50 million annually.

He said that in cooperation with other ministers in the Serbian government he will consider the possibility of building an industrial park in Svilajnac and also announced that a bridge will be built to connect Svilajnac with Corridor 10.

Djelic stated for the news agency Tanjug that Serbia will never recognise the independence of Kosovo-Metohija, nor Kosovo passports, which authorities in the province have announced will be issued.

Serbia will never establish relations with itself. The Serbian government and parliament have already annulled all decisions by authorities of the so called state of Kosovo and this decision is utterly invalid for Serbia as well, stressed Djelic.

He visited the police department for issuing new biometric passports in Svilajnac and said at the occasion that Serbian athletes will travel to China for the Olympic Games with new passports.

According to Djelic, citizens must replace old travel documents with new ones as soon as possible if they wish to have a visa-free regime for travel to EU countries.

Responding to questions about when Serbian citizens will be able to travel to the EU with new passports, Djelic said that one of the conditions for including Serbia on the White Schengen List is that Serbian citizens have modern biometric passports and recalled that the government has an extremely ambitious plan to make it possible that the EU removes visa restrictions by the end of this year.

A certain number of conditions for this are not political, he said and explained that besides issuing new passports, laws must be adopted which are necessary for the country to be on the White Schengen List.

He said that he talked with Serbian parliament speaker Slavica Djukic-Dejanovic and it was agreed that one more special session of parliament should be held, at which remaining laws that are ready will be adopted, making it possible for Serbia to be included on the White Schengen List.

At the same time, we must also implement other reforms so that by the middle of November, when European ministers of interior meet with their counterparts from the West Balkans, a decision can be made on including Serbia on the White Schengen List, said Djelic.