Member Article

Following onrecent newsregarding the mutual desire of both sides to improve the commercial relations between Slovenia and Serbia, there are now additional reports to substantiate these claims. The Slovenian ambassador in Serbia, Vladimir Gasparič, has proclaimed his country's strong support for Serbia to establish a new economic policy model and ascend to EU, as well as willingness to intensify the cooperation between companies in the two countries and improve the overall regional commercial linkage.

In more precise terms, it has been reported that there is a strong possibility for Serbian and Slovenian companies to organise themselves in consortia, in order to start a process of joint production for third party markets in a variety of industry fields including construction, automotive, food, and others. Such joint entities would then be able to participate in large infrastructural tenders that would otherwise be hard for them to win at separately.

Marko Čadež, the president of the Serbian Chamber of Commerce, has pointed out the progressive bilateral cooperation between the two countries' chambers, highlighting activities related to joint projects such as the West Balkans Investment Forum as examples of it. Moreover, Gasparič took to emphasise the importance of the economic reforms in Serbia for the general health of the economic environment in the region, since they will make it significantly easier for Serbia to latch onto the EU market once becoming a full member.

The positive cooperation between the two countries can also be noted in some hard facts, such as the numbers relating to the foreign trade exchanges – including the exchange total of approximately USD 965 million in 2015, and the fact that Slovenia has been investing broadly in Serbia, through some 500 or more companies and branches. All of this gives confidence that the two countries have significant potential for the planned joint activities in third party markets.