Subsidies for investments from EUR 100,000 and employment of 10 workers – Government of Serbia adopts new Decree on Terms and Conditions for Attracting Direct Investments

The Government of Serbia has lowered the bar for getting state aid from EUR 150,000 in investments to RSD 100,000, with an obligation of employing at least 10 people. This is prescribed in the new Decree on Terms and Conditions for Attracting Direct Investments, which came into effect in late December 2016.

The state will therefore pay EUR 3,000 to 7,000 to investors for each new employee, depending on the area the money is invested in. Those intending to start or expand a business in undeveloped areas of Serbia stand to receive the most.

In addition to this, investors will be getting state aid for capital assets in the amount of 10-30% of the money invested. They will, however, first need to secure 25% of the value of the total investment from their own funds.

The decree envisions paying out the money in installments. The amount of each installment is defined as a percent of the total amount of allocated funds.

These findings have been confirmed by Minister of Economy Goran Knezevic.

– The decree needed to be changed so that a continuity of economic growth through direct investments would be secured, so that we would get new capacities, technologies, employ new workers. We have also strengthened the control of adhering to contractual obligations with this decree. The focus is on investments in undeveloped and devastated municipalities and providing support to those investing at least EUR 2 million and creating at least 100 new jobs within their projects – Knezevic says.