Serbia’s foreign trade in 2011 is increasing, but that is not as close as the country could have had considering its economic power and potentials, Chairman of the Serbian Chamber of Commerce (PKS) Milos Bugarin stated on Tuesday.
This year the greatest increase was recorded in the trade with Belarus, Norway, the Czech Republic, Denmark and Croatia, while the import-export ratio has been 62 percent, Bugarin said in the PKS at a meeting of representatives of the PKS and foreign economic societies gathered in the INO POOL association.
Bugarin underlined that the improvement of the economic environment needs an increase in competitiveness of the domestic economy through production boost and export of more expensive goods.
The potentials of domestic and foreign companies, which are doing business in the Serbian market, need to be increased so that they could be used in a better way and placed at the international market, he said.
Bugarin highlighted the advantages of the Free Trade Agreement which Serbia signed with a number of countries, stressing that this opens possibility for products to be placed at large world markets with nearly billion citizens.
PKS Deputy Chairman Mihailo Vesovic said that Serbia will face the second wave of the economic crisis, and that 2012 will be the year in which economic growth at the global level will slow down.
According to him, such circumstances require engagement of all available economic resources and closer cooperation with foreign economic centers.
Vesovic said that INO POOL has been very active this year, and that the Chamber was visited by a large number of foreign delegations as part of various manifestations.
Secretary of the PKS Board for International Economic Relations Olivera Kiro said that she is working on the free trade agreement with Ukraine, which should speed up Serbia’s accession to the World Trade Organization.
According to her, the PKS has representative offices in eight countries, while new ones are planned in Macedonia, Croatia and Kazakhstan.
Early in 2011, the PKS and representatives of 16 foreign economic associations and economic departments of the embassies in Austria and Spain established INO POOL, whose goal is to strengthen ties between the domestic and international economy.
Source emg.rs
