Serbia to Get BIO4 Campus, New Clinical Center and Tirsova 2 – 2022 Retrospective of Investments in Healthcare

The coronavirus period that has marked the past three years has left something good in its wake – it has forced us to turn to digitization and implement it wherever possible. Many companies turned to artificial intelligence and the digitization of their operations in said period in order to adapt and catch up with the future. The digitization trend has not bypassed healthcare and education either, so today we have more and more examples of the development of biomedicine, bioinformatics and biotechnology, and the sciences in those fields are helping each other.

Due to all this, we should not be surprised that the most read announcement on our portal, when it comes to investments in healthcare, is the announcement of the construction of the BIO4 Campus.

Here is the list of investments in healthcare that our readers found the most interesting in 2022.

1. BIO4 Campus: 3 faculties and 8 science institutes in one place

BIO4 Campus, a complex in whose construction an investment of nearly EUR 300 million is planned, will have a total area of 110,000 m2 and around 1,200 professors and researchers and 4,000 students will be active there. The project, whose construction has been announced for the first half of this year, is a new bioeconomic camp in Europe and entails four fields: biomedicine, biotechnology, bioinformatics and biodiversity.

The campus will encompass 3 faculties and 8 science institutes and the plan is for it to start working in the first quarter of 2025. As Dr Jelena Begovic, the then director of the Institute for Molecular Genetics and Genetic Engineering of Serbia, said last year around this time for the Preduzetnik publication, “the Campus is a national project of the construction of a unique complex within which experts, knowledge and infrastructure will be gathered. The guiding idea is for Serbia to be recognizable on the global map of research and development. The campus will become a place of meeting and communication, where big biopharmaceutical and biotechnology companies can establish cooperation with scientists of various profiles, clinicians, startups, entrepreneurs, and develop products that will make all our lives better”.

– This center should attract a part of our diaspora too, enable the flow of people in both directions, intensify the internationalization of science by attracting scientists from the region and the whole world – she emphasized at the time.

2. Project of reconstruction of Mother and Child Healthcare Institute

The second place belongs to the project of the reconstruction of the Mother and Child Healthcare Institute of Serbia – “Dr Vukan Cupic”. The project, prepared by Bureau Cube Partners from Belgrade, envisages the demolition of the existing pediatric-surgical block, with the emergency reception, the sterile block and the intensive cares, and the construction of a new one, with a basement level and 4 floors. Also, according to the documentation, the main facility will retain the existing 13 floors following the reconstruction, but it will be modernized.

The institute complex, as announced in the project at the time, will be a veritable green oasis, which a complex of this type needs.

3. Construction of Euromedik residential-office facility in Palilula

Our readers paid considerable attention to the announcement of the construction of the Euromedik residential-office facility in Dragoslava Srejovica Street in Palilula. The building is planned to have nine floors with a loft and three underground levels.

Commercial features are planned on the ground floor, whereas the first two upper floors and a part of the first underground level are to feature healthcare institution features. A total of 154 apartments are planned from the third floor to the loft. The main designer is YUGO Biro, and the author of the preliminary design is PR Parallel Studio.

4. Reconstruction of General Hospital in Uzice

A thorough reconstruction and extension of the General Hospital in Uzice has been announced for this year. The project envisages for certain dilapidated facilities in the hospital area to be demolished and for new ones, amounting to 60,000 new square meters, to be built. There will also be investments in the existing facilities and their reconstruction and equipping, Radio Pozega reported.

According to the director of the Health Center Uzice, Natasa Gagovic, the surgery department will be moved to the new building in the first phase of the construction.

– A facility for geriatric medicine, palliative care, as well as the new psychiatry department, will be built. The infection diseases department will also be reorganized and expanded – she announced at the time.

All this speaks in favor of the fact that the Health Center Uzice (which covers the area of the Zlatibor District with around 300,000 users) will meet the necessary requirements and become the fifth clinical center in Serbia.

The reconstruction and extension of the Health Center and General Hospital of Uzice is one of the biggest projects to be realized in Uzice over the coming four years, and the value of the investment has been estimated at around EUR 80 million. The future complex, as said, will consist of 20 facilities, with a total gross floor area of around 103,500 m2, with 1,020 planned hospital beds.

5. Opening of landmark 100th business unit of Aqualab

In early February, the Aqualab laboratory opened its landmark 100th business unit. The new central laboratory is located in New Belgrade, at 115a Mihajla Pupina Blvd. A special advantage is the fact that it will work seven days a week, 24 hours a day. Aqualab has been operating since 2002, and over 4,000 analyses from all fields of modern clinical diagnostics are done at the laboratories.

6. Change of the project of the future children’s clinic Tirsova 2

The Office for Public Investment Management, which is the investor in the preparation of the Urban Project of the future children’s clinic Tirsova 2, has launched the initiative for the preparation of the confirmed urban project.

As explained in the new project, in the process of the development of the technology, certain functional units were expanded in line with the suggestion of the team of medical doctors from Tirsova as the future users of the new hospital, appointed by the mayor of Belgrade. Let us remind that the location on which the construction of the children’s hospital is planned is located at 40a Deligradska Street, in the location of the former military institution “Dedinje”, and based on the confirmed Urban Project and the confirmed Reparceling Project, the execution of the preparatory works on the development of the construction site and the construction of the site road are in progress at the location at the moment. According to the new preliminary design, a free-standing children’s hospital facility is planned, with 5 underground levels and 6 floors, including the ground floor, with a total gross area of 61,923 m2. The capacity of the building is designed for 301 beds, distributed across 117 rooms (the previous project envisaged 286 beds in 154 rooms).

Earlier this year, the president of Serbia, Aleksandar Vucic, announced that the construction of the new children’s hospital could be over by the spring of 2025 and that its construction would cost EUR 117.2 million.

7. Construction of Clinical Center of Serbia – First Phase Completed

The first phase of the reconstruction and construction of the Clinical Center of Serbia was completed and opened on February 27 last year. EUR 260 million was invested in this medical institution on 86,000 m2, with latest-generation equipment, as announced on the website of the President of Serbia. The building got a room for “robotic surgery”, featuring one of the most modern X-ray devices, as well as an intensive care space with a total of 231 beds. As said, the entire project was paid from the budget, except for a small part that was financed from a loan.

8. New hospital in Sremska Mitrovica

The construction of new hospital in Sremska Mitrovica, of 17,000 m2, was announced in January last year, and the plan is for the facility to be located on the flat area around the former Medical School. As reported at the time, the construction was expected to begin in 2022. Furthermore, the reconstruction of the Health Center, the Public Health Institute and the Emergency Service, which would be located right next to the hospital, was announced. For these projects, according to the then minister of agriculture of Serbia, Branislav Nedimovic, the state will set aside around EUR 20 million in the first phase alone.

9. Siberian Wellness acquires Dahlia factory

The international company Siberian Wellness, which produces health, sports and beauty products based on wild Siberian plants, became the new owner of the Dahlia factory, which produces the Becollino and Hera brands and the legendary Brion shaving lotions and skin care products. The agreement worth EUR 15 million encompasses the value of the land, the production complex, the technology and the equipment. As Tatjana Gorohovska, the president of Siberian Wellness, said at the media conference organized on the occasion of the acquisition, “in the coming period, we intend to invest EUR 2 million in the infrastructure, primarily in ventilation and water installations”. As she added, in the first quarter of 2023, they plan to double the number of the employees. She also pointed out that the factory would continue producing under the Dahlia brand.

In 2008, Dahlia was acquired by Beohemija, which remained its owner until 2016, when bankruptcy proceedings were initiated, after which, in 2017, it was bought by the Swiss investment fund Batagon.

10. National Center “Ukras Sveta”

Your attention was also drawn by the tender for the designing and construction of the Center for Early Child Development and Inclusion in Belgrade, which was published in May by the Office for Public Investment Management of the Government of Serbia. The estimated value of the job is close to RSD 3.8 billion (EUR 32.5 million). According to the urban project, the National Complex Ukras Sveta will be built in Bezanijska Kosa, on 21,000 m2. The center will be located in the block between Pedje Milosavljevica and Dr Huga Klajna streets, along Ismeta Mujezinovica Street.

The complex, whose foundation stone was laid down in late January, is meant for children with developmental disabilities, and, in addition to diagnostics and therapy units, it will also encompass numerous other features, such as bungalows for the parents, 3D printers for the making of assistance devices, a pool, a horseback-riding school and a mini zoo. According to the project, the three-story complex will have an interior yard and consist of several units, among which are the therapeutic, the diagnostic, the educational and the scientific-research units, and numerous accompanying features are planned as well.

We presented the list of the most read news in the field of investments in healthcare, whose full contents you can view HERE.

We also invite you to see which investments marked 2022 in the fields of TRADE CENTERS, SPORTS, TOURISM, ENTERTAINMENT AND RECREATION, INDUSTRY, AGRICULTURE AND FOOD INDUSTRY, UTILITY INFRASTRUCTURE AND ENERGY, TELECOMMUNICATIONS AND IT, ECOLOGY and REAL ESTATE.