Economy of Serbia - Foreign Direct Investments

Foreign Direct Investments

Serbia is open to foreign direct investment, and attracting FDI is set as a priority for the government of Serbia, which provides both financial and tax incentives to companies willing to invest. Serbia has a long history of international commerce, even under communism, and it once attracted a sizeable foreign company presence, mainly due to its access to Comecon, and Non-Aligned Movement markets. Today, leading investor nations in Serbia include: Austria ($2.68bn), Greece ($1.62bn), Norway ($1.55bn), Germany ($1.30bn) and Italy ($0.95bn). In a recent poll for investors, conducted by the German Chamber of Commerce, Serbia came on top as an investment destination in South-Eastern Europe, with 97% of companies being pleased with business conditions. During the first 3 quarters of 2011 foreign direct investment topped USD$ 1.2 billion up about USD$ 560 million from the same period in 2010.

Foreign direct investments
Year	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011
Cash investments (USD Billions)	0.05	0.17	0.50	1.38	0.98	1.61	4.47	3.56	3.36	2.40	n/a	n/a
Total investments (USD Billions)	0.05	0.16	0.55	1.41	1.03	2.09	5.12	3.98	2.99	1.92	1.01	3.01
Total per capita (USD)	6.7	21	73.3	189.3	138.8	282.4	693.8	541.5	412.4	266.7	141.3	422.7
Cash investments source: Serbia Investment and Export Promotion Agency, Total investments source: UN Conference on trade and development Inward FDI by Industries (2005–2009): Financial Intermediation ($5.29bn) Manufacturing ($3.16bn) Transport and Telecommunications ($2.68bn) Real Estate and Renting ($2.06bn) Wholesale, Retail, Repairs ($1.82bn)

Blue-chip corporations making investments in Serbia include: US Steel, Philip Morris, Microsoft, Fiat, Coca-Cola, Lafarge, Siemens, Carlsberg and others. In the energy sector, Russian energy giants, Lukoil and Gazprom have made large investments. The banking sector has attracted investments from Banca Intesa (Italy), Crédit Agricole and Société Générale (France), HVB Bank (Germany), Erste Bank, Raiffeisen Zentralbank and Hypo Group Alpe Adria (Austria), Eurobank EFG and Piraeus Bank (Greece), and others. United States based Citibank, opened a representative office in Belgrade in December 2006. In the trade sector, biggest foreign investors are France's Intermarché, German Metro Cash and Carry, Greek Veropoulos, and Slovenian Mercator.

Although most investments in previous years came primarily from the EU, greater interest is being shown from countries like India and Russia. On September 25, 2007, the Government of Serbia and Indian firm Embassy Group signed a memorandum of understanding on information technology park construction. Embassy Group plans to build their first technological park in Europe at an area of 280ha in the town of Indjija near Belgrade. The five year plan predicts building a business area of 250,000 square meters and employing around 25,000 people. This is planned as the largest Greenfield investment in Serbia, accounting for a minimum of $600 million. On December 24, 2008, presidents of Serbia and Russia, Boris Tadic and Dmitry Medvedev have signed oil and natural gas deal under which Gazprom's oil arm Gazprom Neft gets a 51% stake in state-owned Petroleum Industry of Serbia for 400 million euros in cash and 550 million euros in investments. As a part of the deal, a 400 km (250 mi) leg of the South Stream gas pipeline will be built through Serbia, an investment valued at another 2 billion euros.