ERDOGAN IN SERBIA: Long-term goal – trade worth EUR 5 billion EUROS

Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan is paying a two-day visit to Serbia.

After the meeting with the president of Serbia, a session of the High Council for Cooperation of Serbia and Turkey was held and the agreements between the two countries were exchanged and signed. Vucic expressed hope that this visit, Erdogan’s second, to Serbia would be even more fruitful than the previous one, while Erdogan expressed confidence that trade could exceed 1.5 billion euros.

Vucic and Erdogan chaired a session of the High Council for Cooperation of Serbia and Turkey, and they participated in the Serbian-Turkish Business Forum attended by 200 Turkish businessmen.

Trade between the two countries exceeded one billion euros last year, and over the past nine years it rose by 200 percent. It is estimated that Turkish investments in Serbia reached EUR 200 million, and the opening of five more companies is expected.

Calling Turkish investors

The Turkish president told Turkish businessmen that Serbia had great investment opportunities and stressed that the two countries had strong willingness to improve their relations and expand cooperation in several areas.

„Serbia has great opportunities for our investors because it is located at the center of the Balkans, it has a good business environment, quality workforce and incentives,“ Erdogan said, addressing the Serbian-Turkish Business Forum, which was attended by more than 200 businessmen from Turkey.

Turkey’s president said trade had increased by 200 percent since 2010, when the Free Trade Agreement was signed. In 2018, which was record-breaking, trade reached the level of US$1.2 billion and in the first eight months of 2019 it amounted to US$890 million. „This year I believe we will surpass the record from last year. We aim to bring this number up to two billion dollars in the short term, and then to five billion dollars in the long term,“ Erdogan said.

Izvor: Agencije

Foto: Predsedništvo Srbije