Identifying practical examples in meetings with Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Belgrade, Serbia 

25 May 2017

Beograd, Serbia

Ms. Tijana Maljkovic, Ms. Mirjana Kovacevic, and Mr. Nenad Djurdjevic from Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Serbia. Many good examples of cooperation in tourism, education and trade, and examples of massively unexplored potential that the region offers in these and other fields.  

Ms. Maljkovic states that cooperation between Serbia and Montenegro in tourism, and focus on markets like the US, Canada, India, Japan, Chinese, Emirates. For example, for Chinese citizens, Serbia and Montenegro have removed visas. There’s cooperation between Serbia and Macedonia, and Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina in promoting regional tourism. The biggest obstacle is the visa regime since every country makes own decisions whether to remove or not visas for certain countries. There are a lot of people from Kuwait and Bahrain that live in the Emirates but it is difficult for them to get visas to come and visit the region.

Ms. Kovacevic states that there is big demand in the region for knowledge and skills in manufacturing, construction, food industry, tourism and agriculture. And, the need to improve the mobility of labor force in general, especially for young people who travel from one country to another country. Austrian, German and Swiss governments support the dual education and training that connects educational institutions, businesses and students, through which young people learn at school and while working in companies they gain knowledge and learn new things that may not be possible otherwise. Since 2013, there have been over 1,000 students in 18 schools and 60 companies. Next year there is an ambition to increase the number from currently 5 to 20 profiles and about 500 companies.

Mr. Djurdjevic would like that people speak more about cooperation between the countries in the region, and show that it is possible and there is cooperation between Serbia and Kosovo. He states that it is important for us to promote such cooperation because it is not a treachery nor a philosophy. With the initiative of Chambers of Commerce of Serbia and Kosovo there is cooperation in energy, infrastructure, digitalisation, work on recognition of diplomas and labor market between the Chambers of Commerce of eight countries that are part of the Berlin Process, Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, BiH, Montenegro, Kosovo, Makedonia, Albania.