Gates of Western Balkans stand wide open for investors – Serbia and Montenegro ready for partnership with Canadian businessmen

Two-day investment conference “Business opportunities for Canadians in Western Balkans", which ends today (March 28, 2007) in Belgrade, gathered significant number of domestic and foreign businessmen who are willing to speak about new projects, investments and business.

Speaking to the participants in that meeting, the Manager of the Investment and Export Promotion Agency of Serbia, Jasna Matić, pointed to the crucial comparative advantages of our country, reminding all present to the entire investment potential and human resources that Serbia has at its disposal at the moment.

For her side, she directed an open invitation to the Canadian businessmen not to bypass this region in their investment projections, because the Western Balkans represents strategically important place, as well as the market that can bring many benefits to their operations.

Similar message was given by the Minister of Economy and Development of Montenegro, Branimir Gvozdenović, pointing out that "Montenegro is ready to grow into the country that will be the leader in the investments", which is exactly why the Government of that country started strong reforming activity to make Montenegro suitable for something like that.

- Few days ago we signed the Agreement on stabilization and admission into EU, which is another signal and confirmation that the direction in which Montenegro is heading is the right one. The voluminous infrastructural projects whose value exceeds 2.1 billion EUR lie ahead of us and we invite all of you to join us in the realization of these projects – Gvozdenović explained.

Conference "Business opportunities for Canadians in Western Balkans” has been organized by Mank Centre for International Studies at the University in Toronto in cooperation with company "Dundee Precious Metals", the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Trade of Canada and the Embassy of Canada to Belgrade.

I. A.