Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Serbia Nikola Selakovic met today in The Hague with the representatives of some of the Dutch companies doing business in our country, as well as with the representative of The Netherlands Enterprise Agency, which operates within the system of the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

After the meeting, Selakovic explained that this was one of the new practices that were introduced in the activity of the Serbian MFA, and that it implied organizing smaller business forums during bilateral visits, especially in countries which had a significant number of investors in our country.

Among the nine companies at the forum were important names of the Dutch economy, such as Heineken and Delhaize, but also some that are less familiar to our public, mostly export-oriented companies operating in Serbia.

“On the one hand, this is important because investments are being made in Serbia, and then exports from Serbia follow as well, and on the other, this is important from the political aspect. All representatives of the companies we talked to are spreading a good picture, the image of a new Serbia as a lucrative investment destination, which is friendly to investors and has considerably less bureaucratic barriers to be dealt with", Selakovic said.

Today's meeting, apart from being an opportunity to promote the work of the Serbian Foreign Ministry’s Economic Diplomacy Sector and the Development Agency of Serbia, was also an opportunity to hear praise for all the benefits of investing in Serbia, and one of these, as Selakovic pointed out, was that throughout their business activity in Serbia, the Dutch investors did not encounter corruption.

All of the above, according to the Head of Serbian diplomacy, is part of Serbia’s image as the economic leader of the region.

"We want to make these companies the biggest promoters of Serbia here in the Netherlands, in the Benelux countries, so that they spread this positive story about Serbia among their colleagues who have not yet started doing business in our country", Selakovic said.

President of the Dutch-Serbian Business Association Bojan Lekovic said after the forum that the goal of that association was to help the Serbian economy by attracting as many investments as possible.

"We want to have as many Dutch companies in Serbia as possible, and it is important that Dutch investors know that such an association already exists, because it gives them security and the opportunity to inquire about experiences", Lekovic said.