African companies interested in cooperating with Serbian businessmen

The conference “How to do Business with Sub-Saharan Africa” gathered Serbian businessmen and companies from Nigeria, Sudan, Congo, Kenya, Angola, Zambia and Mozambique, as well as representatives of economy and diplomacy of several African countries, on April 26. The conference, held at the Chamber of Commerce of Serbia, focused on the development of potentials for doing business in the African region, which is a large and prosperous market and where leading local companies have already positioned themselves, the CCIS website states.

Opening the gathering, the vice president of the CCIS, Miroslav Miletic, emphasized that the initiative for the preparation of the conference originated in increasing interest of the Serbian economy in the Sub-Saharan African market, but also in numerous African companies which frequently addressed the CCIS, looking to establish cooperation with Serbian companies.

– In addition to the successful Serbian company Nelt, African companies which came to Serbia looking to establish cooperation with producers in the fields of food and agricultural products, medical drugs, cosmetics, house cleaning products, textile and footwear, construction, mining, automotive industry and education, also shared their experience with us today – Miletic said.

According to the date of the Statistical Office of the Republic of Serbia, cited at the conference, the trade between Serbia and Sub-Saharan Africa has been constantly growing in the past five years. The Serbian side recorded a positive trade balance in 2014 and 2015, whereas the African side had it in 2012, 2013 and 2016. Last year, Serbia exported goods worth USD 71.3 million, whereas the import for Sub-Saharan Africa amounted to USD 96.3 million in the said period, 60% more than in 2015. In the first two months of 2017, Serbia exported products worth USD 4.2 million, whereas the import amounted to USD 8.1 million.

The list of exported products includes processed tobacco, automatic data processing machines, food production machines, electrical machines and devices, road motor vehicles, car tires and other items. On the other hand, in the said period, Serbia imported cocoa, unsorted goods, natural rubber and tires, coffee and coffee surrogates, stone, sand, granite and other goods.

In 2016, Serbia's biggest exporting foreign trade partners in Sub-Saharan Africa were Mauritania, Kenya, Nigeria, Equatorial Guinea, Angola, Ghana, South Africa and Gabon, whereas its biggest importing partners were Nigeria, South Africa, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Eritrea, Uganda, Mozambique, Kenya and Zimbabwe.

It was pointed out at the conference that there was a possibility of increasing the trade in nearly every field, but that a quality organizational step first needed to be made by both sides and that all obstacles to an increase in cooperation needed to be removed, beginning with transportation problems to simplifying various customs procedures and other paperwork.

Privredna komora Srbije

Nelt Co d.o.o Beograd

Republički zavod za statistiku

CCIS

How to do Business with Sub-Saharan Africa conference

Sub Saharan Africa

Miroslav Miletic

Statistical Office of the Republic of Serbia

export to Serbia

export to Africa

import to Serbia