PALE, 3 November 2017 -  By the end of this year Serbian Development Agency (SDA) will realise around 45 investment contracts of the total value of around EUR 350 million, which will open around 20.000 new jobs, said today the acting director of the Serbian Development Agency Radoš Gazdić. 

At the opening of the Third Forum on Economic Cooperation between the Republic of Srpska and Serbia on Jahorina, Mr Gazdić said that in the first ten months this year the SDA has realised 24 investment contracts in total, of the total value of investments of EUR 157 million, which will open 8.000 jobs. 

"In November and December we expect to realise an additional contract in the total value of around EUR 200 million, which will open additional 10.000 new jobs, which would be a new record for Serbia when it comes to attracting investment”, explained Mr Gazdić, adding that SDA in 2016 realised 22 investment contracts which brought EUR 236.8 million of investment and open more than 16.000 jobs in Serbia. 

The Forum in Hotel “Termag” on Jahorina brought together more than 250 businessmen from the region, but also from Turkey, China, Sweden, Slovenia…  

"It is of importance to have the cooperation between the regional and municipal development agencies and to connect businessmen in the region. In the past three years Serbia has succeeded in completing the most attractive package intended to investors in the region of Central and South-East Europe. This is also proved by the recognition given by the World Bank to Serbia recently, for the best country in the South-East Europe when it comes to the criteria of conducted reform”, Mr Gazdić has underlined. 

Minister of Industry, Energy and Mining of the Republic of Srpska Petar Đokić has stressed that Serbia is the most important foreign trade partner of the Republic of Srpska. 

That, as he has said, is ensured by the Contract on special parallel relations between the Republic of Srpska and Serbia, and stated that today there is no segment in business between the two countries where there is no cooperation.  

"Today Serbia is pursuing the policy of cooperation and understanding for the best interest of the region”, says Mr Đokić. 

Republic of Srpska, according to his words, has invested BAM 680 million in the development of small and medium-sized enterprises in the period 2011-2017. 

Also, he said that the Republic of Srpska had a GDP growth of 3.5 per cent in 2016, which is, as he has assessed, after leaving the economic crisis an indicator of the readiness for new investments in the Republic of Srpska. 

Marinko Đukić, director of the National Agency for Development of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises, said at the Forum that small and medium-sized enterprises need the support for development and that this is reason why the focus here is on the business meetings of enterprises and clusters.  

Organisers of the Forum are the SDA and the National Agency for Development of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises of the Republic of Srpska, with the support of the Government of Serbia and the Government of the Republic of Srpska. 

The central event of the Forum are the international business meetings organised under the patronage of the Enterprise Europe Network. 

The accompanying programme of the Forum is the panel discussion with development agencies, scientific institutions and organisations with the aim to search for potential partners for the realisation of projects of joint interest.   

Video 1: https://youtu.be/e3TTrx426uc

Video 2: https://youtu.be/5-Z3BeBocPs

Video 3: https://youtu.be/FRjmdt8HxAU

Video 4: https://youtu.be/kKAd8xvfN1w