Free Zone Pirot ready for new investments – Construction of logistics center planned

Traffic corridors are one of the key aspects of the infrastructure of each country, region, town and municipality, and the development of traffic has an impact on the development of economy, attracting new foreign investments and improving the living conditions for citizens.

Today, more and more companies insist on logistics services (transport, storage, reloading, distribution), because they don't want to place additional burden on their operations and spend time organizing and agreeing transport with transporters or face the adjacent responsibilities. In providing transport services, the aim is also to help companies which already use services in Free Zone Pirot and transporters whose trucks pass through the branch of Corridor 10 C and are a potential for providing transport services. Free Zone Pirot is the seat on some well known Serbian companies. One of them is Tigar Tyres d.o.o, part of Michelin Group. Also, 25 small and medium enterprises operate there.

In order to additionally upgrade the development of local economy and traffic infrastructure in the industrial zone, Free Zone Pirot and the City of Pirot have initiated the project of building the Logistics Center Pirot. The new logistics center will inevitably incite the modernization of traffic infrastructure in the southeast part of Serbia, intermodal transport, make the location more attractive for investments and lead to reduced environmental pollution. The priority project contains two components – expansion and upgrade of the industrial zone by around 35 hectares and construction of a new intermodal rail terminal. The industrial infrastructure and the intermodal terminal will be open for all potential users, local and foreign, and all activities will be carried out with certain advantages in the regime of Free Zone Pirot.

– The project of the construction of the Logistics Center Pirot will contribute to a more efficient mobility of cargo, an increased quality of logistics services, the reduction of cargo transport costs and an accelerated economic development. The indirect benefits will be much wider in the sense of reducing the number of traffic accidents, emission of greenhouse gases, noise and traffic jams, connecting with intermodal hubs in Europe and creating new jobs. Also, the project will stimulate the modernization of the rail infrastructure in Serbia – Free Zone Pirot says.

The proximity of Bulgaria and Romania is a special advantage, and there's also the good logistics connection of Free Zone Pirot with the ports of Burgas and Thessaloniki, above all. Free Zone Pirot has daily cooperation with the port of Burgas in transporting raw materials for its users, whereas the cooperation with the port of Thessaloniki has been intensifying in the past years, primarily when it comes to the export of goods.

– The current needs for the construction of the Intermodal Logistics Center primarily arise from the needs of the users of Free Zone Pirot, the most important of which is the car tire giant Tigar Tyres, part of Michelin Group, as well as all the other small and medium enterprises which operate in Free Zone Pirot. We monitor the needs of all the users carefully and we are ready to offer the best solutions as soon as possible. In cooperation with the users, we have developed modern software apps which facilitate the monitoring of the import and the export of goods, whereby the involvement of the users in the logistics activities is reduced to a minimum. We thereby enable companies to benefit from all the advantages in a single place and focus on developing their own business – the Free Zone says.

The forwarding sector of Free Zone Pirot, with licenses for customs representation, enables a quick realization of the procedure of the export and the import of goods. The presence of the customs referee and a customs inspection terminal contributes to the efficiency.

– We also have a parking for cargo vehicles. In addition to that, we provide the services of organization of local and international transport, storage and reloading of goods. We are connected with the local self-government, the government's institutions and the customs authorities, with the aim of enabling substantial support to the users and making the services more efficient. The fact that we are on the right track is shown by local and international acknowledgments we've been awarded with in the past period. One of the most important ones is that the experts of the FGI Magazine, which is part of the Financial Times, pronounced us the best free zone in Europe and the third best in the world in 2018.

As Serbia is a landlocked country, it is very important for it to have efficient goods transport and distribution system based on multimodal transport. That is why investments must be made in intermodal terminals, so that the clients' needs can be met and so that the integration in the regional and the global supply chain can be achieved.

– It is the traffic infrastructure that is the general requirement for the development of the economy, as it helps attract new foreign investments, while also improving the living conditions. We expect the built Corridor 10 to contribute to making our free zone more attractive. An important potential for the realization of the project of the Logistics Center of Pirot are Turkish truck transporters, which used to use ro-ro transport, whereas now they plan to redirect their transport to western Europe through Corridor 10 C – Free Zone Pirot says.

Slobodna zona Pirot

Grad Pirot

Tigar Tyres doo Pirot

Free Zone Pirot

City of Pirot

Tigar Tyres

Michelin group

Financial Times

FGI magazine

Dragan Kostic

customs zone

Logistics Center Pirot

logistics center construction

intermodal transport

Corridor 10

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