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The Government of the Republic of Serbia

In the service of citizens

Government will work to attract foreign investment

Belgrade, 26 March 2004

A ministerial conference entitled "Establishing economic cooperation between countries of southeastern Europe" will be held on March 30 in the Belgrade Hyatt Regency hotel. The conference aims to promote this region as an area of great potentials and boost economic cooperation.

(PHOTO: FoNet)

The conference is being organised by Forum Invest Romania, the coordinators are the Serbian Investment and Export Promotion Agency and the Serbian Chamber of Commerce. The conference will be held under the auspices of the European Agency for Reconstruction (EAR) and the Romanian Ministry of Economy.

The conference aims to gather specialists in the field of economy and finance from the countries of southeastern Europe to discuss the most important forms of political and economic cooperation, the capital market, regional projects, reconstruction of infrastructure, development of a regional free trade zone, possibilities for foreign direct investment (FDI), realisation of joint projects and promotion of development of business associations.

The conference will be attended by representatives of numerous domestic companies and those from Romania, Slovenia, Italy, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia and Greece. The conference will also gather representatives of many international financial and economic institutions.

The Serbian government will be represented by Serbian Deputy Prime Minister Miroljub Labus and Serbian Minister of International Economic Relations Predrag Bubalo.

New Director of the Serbian Investment and Export Promotion Agency Jasna Matic told a press conference today that the attraction of foreign investment is high on the new government's priority list. She said that Serbia has a big problem of trade deficit, that is low imports and high exports, and that the Agency's activities are among the government's top priorities.

In order to attract foreign investment, Matic said that the government will facilitate the process of investing through the abolishment of numerous red tape procedures. That process should be simplified for both foreign and domestic investors.

Matic stressed that the focus should be switched from trade to production in order to encourage economic growth, increase the employment rate and thus increase the export as well.

Romanian Ambassador to Serbia-Montenegro Stefan Glavan told a press conference today that Serbia and Romania have excellent political relations, but that the economic cooperation is not satisfactory. He voiced hope that the ministerial conference will help boost economic relations between the two countries.

Advisor in the Romanian Ministry of Economy Haralmbie Barbu said that Serbia-Montenegro and Romania signed a free trade agreement in December 2003, but that the document has still not been ratified in the parliaments of the two states. He said that Romania submitted the agreement to the parliament for ratification, and urged Serbia-Montenegro to do the same. Barbu pointed out that the agreement will allow for duty-free trade of 90 percent of industrial products of the two countries.