Drakulic: Potential Leaving of Foreign Investors from Serbia Due to Pressure from World Politicians

The president of the Privrednik business club in Serbia, Zoran Drakulic, said that the pressure of world politicians on their big investors in Serbia, due to the situation the country was in, could lead to them leaving and that the right decision for the country to survive should therefore be made.

Drakulic said for Beta that he had often criticized the authorities, but that this was the moment for making difficult decisions and avoiding potential sanctions.

– This is the breaking point. I have always criticized, but these are difficult times and the right decisions need to be made. I don’t get involved with the politics, but this is the time to think where to go next and how this country can survive, especially at this moment, when we have expensive credits and we will also have a debt crisis – Drakulic said regarding the allegations that Serbia will face consequences if it doesn’t accept the EU’s plan for Kosovo.

The president of Serbia, Aleksandar Vucic, said that the representatives of the EU, USA, Germany, France and Italy told him the week before that, if he rejected the EU plan for Kosovo, investments in Serbia would be stopped and then withdrawn from the country.

Drakulic said on that occasion that “this is the moment when difficult decisions need to be made”.

– I am in favor of avoiding sanctions at all costs, that’s the last thing we need now, and I am saying that as a businessman who would be affected by it. It is obvious that they want to solve it, it is too serious for someone to joke about it, talking about the potential consequences for Serbia if we reject their plan – Drakulic said.

He added that sanctions were not out of option and that Serbia had gone through it once and that it shouldn’t have to go through it again.

He said that, for years, he had been criticizing the fact that the majority of subsidies were awarded to foreign companies.

– I have been saying that it’s not good. We should have turned more to the local economy, so what could happen now would be easier to withstand. Local investor should have been given considerable advantage in allocating subsidies – Drakulic said.

Srpski poslovni klub Privrednik Beograd

business club Privrednik

Zoran Drakulić

Aleksandar Vučić

debt crisis

credit price increase

withdrawal of investments from Serbia

imposing of sanctions against Serbia

subsidies for foreign investors