Finance Minister Sinisa Mali and European Investment Bank (EIB) Vice President Liliana Pavlova met in Belgrade to review progress on joint projects in Serbia and discuss new activities.
At the beginning, the Minister of Finance thanked the Vice President of the EIB for giving the institution support to Serbia and pointed out the good economic results from this year. He said that economic growth of 6.5 percent is expected, according to conservative estimates, and pointed out that the public debt is at the level of 55.5 percent, that the unemployment rate is under control, and that the Republic of Serbia has helped the economy with about eight billion euros.
The Vice President of the EIB congratulated Minister Mali on the difficult but successful work done in the previous period, and pointed out that these were impressive results.
The interlocutors assessed that the European Union has shown commitment to the Western Balkans, despite the crisis with the pandemic, and that the presence of the EIB is proof that team investment can strengthen the investment potential of the entire region.
“There is no area in which we do not cooperate with this financial institution, and the most important at the moment are those that are most sensitive and under attack due to the current pandemic, and those are the economy and health,” said Mali.
According to him, the main hope of the European investment policy is the European Investment Bank, which has given priority to projects aimed at the economy and investments, with the goal of improving the lives of all citizens.
“In June this year, we signed a contract worth 200 million euros in loans to help small and medium enterprises in Serbia. Of that amount, 110 million euros will be used for company liquidity and 90 million for investment activities, ie for the purchase of equipment in order to further reduce the negative consequences of the pandemic and contribute to the growth of the Serbian economy,” said Mali.
The Vice President of the EIB pointed out that the institution also supports the Western Balkans in the development of sustainable high-quality health care services. The bank has invested more than 365 million euros in regional healthcare projects since 2008.
“More than 200 million euros have been invested in the modernization, renovation and expansion of tertiary hospital services in Serbia provided by clinical centers in Belgrade, Nis, Novi Sad and Kragujevac. The clinical center in Nis, reconstructed with the help of this loan, has expanded its capacities, and now more than 2.5 million citizens from the south of Serbia have better access to health services in that facility,” she reminded.
Then, she added, about 50 million euros were invested in the reconstruction of 20 regional hospitals in Serbia, and two institutes, including the Institute for Virology, Vaccines and Serums “Torlak”, where the EIB supported the modernization of vaccine production with 3.6 million euros.
The interlocutors pointed out that another important area of cooperation is energy and green transition.
In May this year, a financial agreement was signed for the Nis-Dimitrovgrad-Bulgaria Gas Interconnector. The value of this project is 85.5 million euros and it will be financed by an EIB loan of 25 million euros, and in addition to the loan funds, EU grants (IPA) have been provided to finance this project in the amount of 49.5 million euros, while other costs will be covered from the budget of Serbia. The agreement entered into force on July 20.
It was also announced that the EIB will continue to invest in the region with the intention of recovering from the pandemic as soon as possible and its transformation into a digital, green, connected and competitive market.
All these EIB initiatives are part of the European Commission’s Economic and Investment Plan adopted in 2020, which will make about 30 billion euros available to Western Balkan countries for investments that encourage green transition, inclusive growth and the creation of a common market.
The private sector will also remain the focus of this financial institution, as small businesses need support to recover from the crisis and develop in the direction of innovation and digitalisation, which will create the conditions for job creation in Serbia, Alo reports.
