Balkan Beat

During your official trip to the Kingdom last month, the Serbian delegation proactively met with HRH King Salman Bin Abdulaziz, the Council of Saudi Chambers, the Saudi Fund for Development, the General Commission for Tourism and National Heritage, and various ministries. What did you take from your most recent visit to Riyadh, and do you hope it will contribute to a new era in Serbia-Saudi relations?

Our visit to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia was crowned by the meeting with H.R.H. King Salman, with whom the possibility for Saudi Arabia to finance a joint infrastructure project between Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina was discussed. Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina will come up with a concrete proposal of what kind of project it is going to be in order to jointly apply to the Saudi Fund for Development which offers great opportunities for obtaining the funding needed for the project. We also agreed to form a Joint Trilateral Committee which will deal with the creation and monitoring of joint activities related to increasing trade and the implementation of Saudi investments in Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina. In the area of agriculture we agreed to organize a joint fair in Riyadh, where Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina will present their agricultural and food products as well as other potential products for the sector. Construction companies from Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina were invited to participate in tenders in KSA, since the construction of more than 1.5 million housing units is expected there over the next seven years. Furthermore, an excellent business forum was held during this visit, organized by the Council of Saudi Chambers, which brought together more than 30 companies from three countries. In addition, a visit for tour operators from Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina in April this year was agreed with the host, H.R.H. Prince Sultan bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, President of the Saudi Commission for Tourism and National Heritage, during which the tourist potential of the two countries will be presented to the Saudi Arabian market.

With trade ties between the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the Republic of Serbia standing at a modest USD31 million for the previous year, which economic areas of cooperation will you look to strengthen in the years ahead?

Although the volume of bilateral trade exchange between the Republic of Serbia and KSA is still very modest and much below its real potential, it should be noted that during the past few years it has been constantly increasing, and that in 2015 it reached USD54.3 million, which is twice what it was in 2014. That year, due to a sudden increase in exports from Serbia (an increase of 493.2% compared to 2014), a trade surplus was recorded for the first time on our side. The growth trend continued last year, in 2016, with the total exchange reaching USD97.9 million which is an increase of 79.6% compared with 2015. For us this is a great result, especially bearing in mind that our exports have increased by 30 in the past five years, from a modest USD1.3 million in 2011 to USD31.1 million in 2015. In 2016, our exports also continued to grow, reaching USD72.3 million, increasing by 132.4% as compared to 2015. Serbia is very interested in the improvement of overall economic relations with KSA. By maintaining the continuity of the established direct contacts at a state level with KSA, being one of the most influential economic leaders of the Arab and Islamic world, and bearing in mind the needs and plans for comprehensive development of the country on one hand, and the potential and interests of our country on the other, there are numerous possibilities for establishing cooperation in areas that are mutually identified as promising: trade, agriculture, tourism, health and education, participation in infrastructure projects, and military-economic cooperation.

In recent years, Serbia has been forging an ambitious, sector-wide foreign policy in the Middle East, especially with the UAE. What is behind this strategy and what is your vision for Serbia’s cooperation with the region going forward?

The United Arab Emirates is the first Middle Eastern country that has recognized Serbia as a new economic partner and an excellent investment destination in the region of the Western Balkans. Good political relations are accompanied by improving economic cooperation, both in the field of investments and in the field of trade exchange: UAE is an important investment partner of Serbia, especially in the field of air transport (the national airline “Air Serbia” was formed by the agreement on strategic partnership between the Government of Serbia and company “Etihad”), agro-industry (UAE companies “Al Ravafed” and “Al Dahra” are already present as investors on the Serbian market) and construction (UAE company “Eagle Hills” has started the realization of the project “Belgrade waterfront”); bilateral trade exchange has increased several times in the past five years, from a modest USD30.1 million in 2012 to USD122.3 million in 2016. The contractual and legal framework of cooperation has been established between the two countries, giving an additional impulse for the further improvement of overall bilateral and particularly economic relations. The President of Republic of Serbia H.E. Tomislav Nikolić paid an official visit to State of Qatar in November last year. On that occasion, very important agreements were signed between the two governments, regulating the area of economic relations: on economic, trade and technical cooperation, on mutual enhancement and protection of investments and on cooperation in the field of agriculture, as well as the agreements on cooperation in the field of culture and youth and sport. During this visit we discussed the possibilities of cooperation between Serbian and Qatari companies with the renowned “Qatar Investment Authority” (QIA), and an official invitation has been made to their senior representatives to pay a visit to Serbia during this year in order to discuss concrete possibilities for the enhancement of bilateral economic cooperation with Serbian counterparts, especially in the areas of agriculture, energy, ICT, health, and tourism. The work on building contractual and legal framework of economic cooperation with KSA has started immediately after the establishment of diplomatic relations in 2013. The first agreement between two states, on cooperation in the field of tourism has been was signed in Belgrade in 2015 during the visit of H.R.H. Prince Sultan bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, President of the Saudi Commission for Tourism and National Heritage. The agreements on economic and technical cooperation and on mutual enhancement and protection of investments are currently in the process of negotiation, as well as the Memorandum of Understanding on cooperation in the field of ICT. Once completed, they will open a vast area for improving bilateral economic relations, currently taking place exclusively through the trade exchange ( in the last five years, from a modest USD8.7 million in 2012, the exchange has increased to as much as USD97.9 million in 2016 ) while maintaining direct bilateral contacts between the two countries at the highest level. We are very interested in seeing KSA becoming a significant economic partner to Serbia, since obtaining the deals in this country would have a major impact on our presence in other economically important countries in the Gulf. This would also allow us to expand regionally and in Europe, but also at a wider international level. One of the visible results of this approach has been a significant improvement in relations with the countries of the Middle East.