Trade exchange between Serbia and Finland dropped by 50%

(Helsinki)

- Serbia and Finland registered 16.5m USD worth of trade exchange in the first quarter of this year, about 50% less than in the same period last year - the Vice President of the Chamber of Commerce of Serbia, Stojan Jevtić, said yesterday (June 1st, 2009).

According to the announcement from the meeting of Serbian-Finland business forum, export was reduced by 23%, to 3.2m USD, while import was 57% smaller than in the same period in 2008, and it amounted to 13.3m USD.

- The list of products that Serbia exported to Finland included pneumatic tires, rubber footwear, raspberries and blackberries, white sheet metal, steel and iron parts and TV antennas - said Jevtić.

- We mainly imported wireless phones, paper and cardboard, grinding machines, smart cards, relays and calcium phosphates from Finland - he added.

According to Jevtić's words, the greatest opportunities for Serbia's export to Finland lie in agricultural-food industry and industries of textile, leather and ready-made clothing.

Jevtić estimated that the possibility of relocation of certain production units from Finland to Serbia should be taken in consideration since Finland moved some of its units to Estonia, and he added that Finnish companies could then export products to the market of CEFTA under more favorable conditions.

Jevtić said that Finland had granted over 90m USD worth of donations to Serbia for environment protection, education, restructuring of public forest management companies.

The Vice Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Finland, Pek Huhtaniemi, said that now was the time for establishment of contacts between Serbian and Finnish companies because of both economic crisis and the fact that Serbia would soon end the negotiations about admission into the World Trade Organization on its way to European Union.

- Finland and Serbia are about to sign the Agreement on protection of investments - said he and added that that would be significant for improvement of relations.

As he explained, there are about 60 Finnish companies or branch offices of Finnish companies in Serbia at the moment.

Huhtaniemi pointed out that it was significant to Finland to avoid protectionism at the time of the economic crisis, and he pointed out that Finland would monitor development of the situation in its export markets.

Business delegation of Finland is staying in Serbia between May 31st and June 2nd. On that occasion, bilateral meetings of Serbian and Finnish companies will be organized.

The delegation includes Finnish environmental consulting company "Enemi Oy", telecommunication networks servicing company "Eltel Networks", paper tissues manufacturer "Metsa Tissue", telecommunications company "Nokia Siemens Networks" and mining and metallurgy consulting company "Outotec Oyj".