President of the Serbian Economists Association Dragan Djuricin has stated that the visit of Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin is an excellent opportunity to attract the big investments to Serbia, but also to put them into the context of our country as an EU member in perspective.
“I hope our side will show enough wisdom and negotiating skill to establish two goals – have Serbia stay on the course of European integrations and provide the greater influx of Russian capital”. Djuricin told the Tanjug agency. “I believe that Putin has come to Serbia first and foremost as a politician, then as a geo-strategist, and finally as a representative of big capital, both state and private. It means that the topics to be discussed are intertwined”, explained Djuricin.
According to him, it will require high level of skill from our negotiators, because “Serbia should definitely be pro-European in orientation, but must not be anti-Russian”. Djuricin has reminded that during the visit of Russian President Dmitri Medvedev the significant credit of one billion dollars was granted to Serbia, which has not been used, and also there was no intensification of activities relating to the “Southern Stream” gas line. At issue are the investments of large volume and it is very important to have in place some agreement on those, as well as the plan of activities that will follow, he underlined.
Djuricin has assessed that the Russian capital comes to Serbia through major investments and financial capital, while adding that the investments of that size are also connected to the financial sector, activity of banks and insurance companies, consulting sector and several branches that accompany the field of energy-supply.
“It could be a chance for Serbia to stimulate the dormant segments of these sectors in our country, but we are yet to see how it will look”, he said. Also, we must keep in mind that Russia is a major force in the domain of power-supply and has certain geo-political ambitions in this region, although they are not always in harmony with our own strivings, such as the potential admission to NATO, or some other, softer forms of cooperation with the Alliance”, concluded Dragan Djuricin.
Source seebiz.eu
