Berlin: Ambassador Janković in an interview for the Ruhr Wirtschaft magazine

In the article entitled “Membership in the European Union has the highest priority”, it is stated that Ambassador Janković visited the Chamber of Commerce in Dortmund and met with Stefan Schreiber, the general director, and Wolf Christian Erich, responsible for foreign trade. The Chamber of Commerce in Dortmund is among the chambers of commerce in North Rhine Westphalia responsible for cooperation with Serbia.

In the interview, Ambassador Janković discussed the current economic situation in Serbia. She noted that the economy of the Republic of Serbia showed great resilience and vitality in times of crisis, caused initially by the pandemic and then by the conflict in Ukraine.

Pointing out that the Government of the Republic of Serbia already took strong fiscal stabilization measures in 2014, she stated that the drop in GDP in 2020, compared to the previous year, was negligible, amounting to only -1.0%, while in 2021 GDP was up by 7.0%. She also added that in the first quarter of this year, the Serbian economy continued to show growth, by 4.4%, which is a remarkable success compared to many other countries.

The ambassador added that Germany has been Serbia’s most important foreign trade partner for years, that the exchange of goods and services between Serbia and Germany is growing at an annual rate of almost 10%, and at the end of last year it amounted to 6.5 billion euros.

“German investments have led to the employment of 76,200 thousand workers in Serbia, and our goal is for that number to reach 100,000 soon," said Ambassador Janković.

In relation to Serbia’s European integration process and the new opportunities arising from the need for stable supply chains, Ambassador Janković pointed out that EU membership has been the goal of the Republic of Serbia since 2000 and is the highest foreign policy priority.

Ambassador Janković added that membership negotiations started in 2014 and are unfolding at a pace that both Serbia and the EU believe can and should be more dynamic.

“Serbia sincerely shares the values ​​on which the EU rests and is ready to contribute to the European family of nations, and not just to profit from it,” the ambassador added.

Ambassador Janković emphasised that the pandemic and current problems have shown that proximity and reliability of supply are very important factors and that Serbia and the Western Balkans should be the focus of German business partners. She said that not only geographical proximity, but also developed infrastructure, but also cultural closeness and knowledge of the German language among a good part of the population form a strong basis for even better and more intensive cooperation with Germany.

The ambassador emphasised that North Rhine Westphalia is traditionally one of the most important provinces in Germany when it comes to the overall bilateral relations with Serbia, making up 17.4% of the total trade exchange with Germany. She noted that there is an extremely developed and rich economic cooperation with many investors who come from this province.

“In our opinion, the agricultural and food sector sectors, especially bio-food, have the greatest potential to contribute to the further improvement of economic relations, along with the metal, textile, construction and wood industry, and IT sector. In recent years Serbia has recorded high growth in the field of information and communication technologies, which is now one of the country's greatest potentials,” the ambassador said.

She also pointed out that Serbia is heavily investing in improving the existing road and railway infrastructure and that German companies should more actively participate in strategic infrastructure projects in Serbia.

Referring in particular to the Open Balkan initiative, which despite the challenges brought by the pandemic, contributed in a very short time to the improvement of the overall cooperation between the three initiator countries - Serbia, North Macedonia and Albania, the ambassador noted that the Open Balkan, like the European Union, is based on “four freedoms” - the movement of goods, services, people and capital - and that it is an open and inclusive initiative, which everyone from the region is welcome to join.

At the end, Ambassador Janković emphasised that Serbia is recording strong economic development and that it is a growing, promising market that offers numerous benefits. This is sufficiently illustrated by the fact that Serbia attracted almost 70% of all direct foreign investments in the Western Balkan region, as well as that it ended 2021 with 3.9 billion euros in direct foreign investments, which is more than the record year of 2019.

The ambassador expressed her belief that this trend will continue in the future, thanks to the investments of German companies, among others.