The president of the Serbian Chamber of Commerce, Marko Cadez, announced that, following the Washington agreement, representatives of the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) will arrive in Belgrade on 21 September to prepare for the opening of their office here, the first in the region, and to ensure faster implementation of the agreed projects.
“This will be one of the first steps of the economic cooperation agreement between Belgrade and Pristina, which will bring visible and concrete benefits not only for our business communities, but also for the economy of the entire region, through economic loans to small and medium-sized enterprises, infrastructure financing and support for private sector investment projects. The agreement covers anything from energy, through the food and logistics industry to high technology, ” Cadez said, prior to his departure from the United States.
For the Serbian Chamber of Commerce, the meeting in Washington, with the executive director of the DFC, Adam Boehler, and the imminent arrival of their delegation in Belgrade, represents the continuation of the cooperation with this American development agency.
“We have been working for more than six months on preparing and developing projects that the DFC will support technically and financially, through the American Exim Bank and the Millennium Challenge Company. In the past period, I have had several online meetings with representatives of this development company to better define useful, strategically important and economically sustainable projects for businesses, which are, at the same time, necessary for economic growth and better connectivity of the region ”, Cadez added.
“Both the businesses and the Belgrade office of the DFC will be able to count on the support of the chambers of commerce of Serbia and Kosovo, as well as on business associations. We are ready to form a common team to support faster and more efficient implementation of projects, ” he underlined.
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According to him, the DFC’s decision to open an office in Serbia, in addition to being a strong signal for future investors, international financial organizations and rating agencies, will soon bring concrete and quite tangible benefits to business people.
“The DFC will ensure a better access to financing for small and medium-sized enterprises through a guarantee scheme and cheap loans, with acceptable terms, which represent great support for individual companies and are a precondition for the growth and development of the SME sector, which are the backbone of every economy, ” Cadez went on to say.
When it comes to investments in the private sector’s projects, he says, production and service companies can count on this support.
“We have proposed and discussed very specific projects in the fields of energy, the food industry, logistics and high technologies,” concluded Cadez.
(Vecernje Novosti, 06.09.2020)
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