Tenth cycle of grants for investors - 30.9m EUR and 2,065 new jobs in Serbian municipalities

The Minister of Economy and Regional Development of Serbia, Mlađan Dinkić, signed contracts today (April 14, 2010) in Leskovac with eight companies on allotment of non-refundable financial means. The money will be invested in employment of 2,065 workers, while the realization of these contracts will enable investments in total amount of 30,968,752 EUR. For these projects, total of 8,295,000 EUR worth of stimulus funds have been set aside in the republic budget.

Within the scope of the 10th cycle of the stimulus program for investors, which is conducted by SIEPA on the basis of the Regulations governing terms and method of attracting direct investments, 19 applications have arrived, 8 of which have been approved.

The City of Leskovac is selected as the place for signing the contracts because a very important investment for its citizens will be realized in that city. The investment will be made by German company Falke, which produces the finest-quality socks and used to cooperate with local factory Zele Veljković in the 1980's.

In addition to six domestic companies (Toplica Drvo, ML, Maytech, JAS Holding and Amiga), there are also three foreign companies among the investors (Falke from Germany, Yura Corporation from South Korea and Metech from Belgium). These investments will be realized in seven municipalities in Serbia: Barajevo, Leskovac, Smederevo, Kuršumlija, Kraljevo, Rača and Valjevo. The municipality of Kuršumlija and the city of Leskovac have the unemployment rate up to 30% higher than the republic average. Kraljevo and Rača also have high unemployment rate (20% higher than the average), so that the positive effects of these investments will affect the local economy and contribute to more equal regional development.

In the previous nine application cycles, the expert commission made the decisions on allotment of stimulus funds to 106 companies. Total of 39,036,000 EUR have been set aside from the budget for total investments worth 604,114,903 EUR and creation of 15,129 new jobs.