Serbia expects multi-million euro investments from UAE

BELGRADE: Serbia expects the UAE to sign investment deals worth hundreds of millions of euros, making the UAE one of its most important economic partners, government ministers said.
Struggling with a double-dip recession, the Balkan nation is looking east for investors to make up for waning interest from crisis-hit Europe and the Middle Eastern cash will add to finance already coming from Russia and China.
The UAE will sign a deal next week concerning Serbia’s weapons industry worth some 100 million euros ($132 million), Defense Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic told the Beta news agency.
Speaking after a three-day visit by Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al-Nahyan, Vucic said two other defense contracts would follow by the end of the month. He gave no further details.
“Serbia and the UAE have agreed deals and investments that are so far the best we have ever achieved in bilateral relations with another country,” Beta quoted Vucic as saying.
He said the UAE was also interested in the construction of an “exclusive building” on the location of the former army headquarters in downtown Belgrade, a mess of mangled concrete and metal since it was bombed by NATO in 1999 during the Kosovo war.
Finance Minister Mladjan Dinkic told the Serbian daily Blic that he would sign a deal with Abu Dhabi’s Al-Dahra agricultural company on a joint investment in eight Serbian farm cooperatives worth some 100 million euros.
He also said the UAE might invest in Serbia’s JAT Tehnika aircraft maintenance company.
Serbia has asked China for an 850 million euro loan to build two new highways and Russia said earlier it was considering a request for a $1 billion loan to help stabilize the Serbian budget.