Foreigners seek consultants in Serbia - Prospering Foreign Investments "prepares the ground" for investments in our country

A foreign investor who wants to invest in our country would like to get familiar with our tax system and learn how much time it takes to get a permit, which municipality offers the best terms, what the real price of land per hectare is, if it is better to build a production facility or rent it, where the manpower is the cheapest, whether there is enough trained staff, what the cost of starting production would be, how much time will pass until the investment pays off... The company Prospering Foreign Investments, a subsidiary of Austria's Prosper Intelligence, started providing foreign companies interested in investing in Serbia with answers to all these questions in May 2012.

- The support provided to investors in Serbia is insufficient, processes are complicated, and investors cannot manage on their own. For example, when someone sells a building land and a foreigner is interested in buying it, the seller immediately sets the price much higher than he would charge to a domestic investor. Our company helps investors, but it is more about enabling Serbia to prosper because we charge exclusively investors for all our services. We are a politically independent company, and we do not receive any support from the state or the province. Every foreigner that decides to become our client gets a report after a successfully completed project - we offer consulting services from the start to the end. Everything we do starts with a thorough analysis, then we create an investment strategy, the third step is the investment itself, while optimization comes at the end - Zoran Jovanovic, CEO of Prospering Foreign Investments, says in a talk with eKapija.

Before an investor becomes a client of Prospering Foreign Investments, the company sends a team to visit the investor in order to learn as much as possible about its local operations.

(Zoran Jovanovic)

- Not every investor becomes our client in the same way. Some of them have already tried to enter this market and noticed certain problems in Serbia, while others come here for the first time. We are focused on different industries, offering 20 modules of work with investors. Our team is first sent to their mother company in order to get to understand what exactly they seek in Serbia. Some companies want to invest in a new market to reduce the costs of production, while others just search for a cheaper manpower. Upon our return to Serbia, we designate a team to conduct research in accordance with the investor's requests - our interlocutor explains.

Jovanovic points out that they first check which municipalities could be the most interesting to the investor, that is, which of them meet the investor's requirements.

- Investors usually want to know which conditions are offered by municipalities, how long it takes to complete certain procedures, whether there can be some complications, if there are potential partners in Serbia in their respective businesses, etc. We analyze the values of what an investor would buy and assess the risk of such investment. Also, we help them participate in tenders.

Prospering Foreign Investments also performs an analysis of manpower, that is, it checks if there are enough engineers, managers available, whether the investor is entitled to employment incentives, if there is a risk of taking subsidies...

- Serbia's great advantage is cheap manpower. Incentives are attractive, but it is necessary to be cautious because certain companies take subsidies and then leave the market. Also, we draw a comparison between banks and insurance companies in Serbia and those in the investor's home country. For example, Erste Bank does not operate the same in Austria and in Serbia.

Our interlocutor stresses that Prospering Foreign Investments also provides support to investors when acquiring companies based in Serbia.

- Once we finish the analysis of municipalities, procedures, investment opportunities, we invite foreign investors to come to Serbia. We show them several locations we find appropriate. In the end, they receive a report at 100 to 200 pages containing all the information they may need - our interlocutor explains.

According to Jovanovic, the biggest problem faced by investors in Serbia is the lack of a real overview of investment opportunities in our country.

He also adds that Serbia could make a substantial profit in the field of mineral resources.

- Mineral resources in Serbia are very appealing to investors, lithium in particular. The future of Serbia also lies in the offer of services, that is, in the work of companies engaged in new technologies. There was a time when companies went to Bratislava for that purpose, but it seems that they are now moving to Serbia because of smaller expenses.

As our interlocutor reveals, a German company specialized in batteries for solar vehicles has showed interest in investing in Serbia.

Prospering Foreign Investments also provides consulting services in the opposite direction, that is, it seeks foreign investors for existing projects in Serbia.

S.O.