President Vučić meets the Ministers and directors of public enterprises

"The essence of today's meeting is to try to find together - and through the activity of the President of the Republic of Serbia and the Government of the Republic of Serbia - the best possible solution for economic growth and a better life for our citizens. I talked about what representatives and companies from certain countries would like to do in our country and what should be our best answer, " said President Vučić, adding that they also discussed the economic situation, cooperation between countries and key infrastructure projects. 

 

 

"I asked people to work with even more energy on the realisation of infrastructure projects to reach an even better GDP of the country," said President Vučić and added that the goal was to increase the living standard of citizens by implementing the Serbia 2025 development program. 

 

President Vučić also said that during the crisis, the state sought to preserve the economy without endangering the future of our children, without increasing the public debt beyond the level of Maastricht, even though the most powerful countries in Europe went beyond that level. He emphasised that we will try to repay the Azerbaijani loan of 170 million euros taken in 2011 when the interest rate was as high as four per cent due to our country's bad rating and pointed out that this would reduce our country's public debt by 0.4 per cent. The President added that our public debt now stands at about 57.9 per cent of GDP, which is significantly lower than in European countries.

 

President Vučić said that he was not satisfied with the planning, which has been distress for us in the last 30 years, and that even now local governments are planning higher revenues while underestimating expenditures. However, the President pointed out that he is satisfied with how large projects have been planned. 

 

 

The President noted that four highways are currently being built. He added that the Azerbaijanis build a bridge on the Sava near Šabac on the Ruma - Šabac highway; a bridge on the Sava on the Sremska Rača - Kuzmin section; a bridge on the Morava river on the section of the Morava corridor near Pojate and Ćićevac, and that works are well underway on the road from Preljina to Požega, which should be completed by the end of next year.

 

The President added the power plant construction in Kostolac should be accelerated in the energy sector, to be completed by the second half of 2022, instead of 2023. He also emphasised that the aim is to implement serious reforms of EPS and Srbijagas and to believe that before the end of the year, we will complete the Balkan Stream gas pipeline through our country. 

 

 

He pointed out that Serbia is working with European companies, the Council of Europe Development Bank (CEB) and the German Development Bank on the project of building wastewater treatment plants and renovation of the sewerage network in 28 local governments. Besides, he stated that we would work with Chinese partners on the completion of the missing water and sewage network and wastewater treatment in nearly 70 local governments in central Serbia.

 

President Vučić pointed out that one of the topics discussed with Ministers and public enterprises' directors was the restructuring of important companies, including Petrohemija, Simpo, Jumko, and Lasta. He added that it was imperative to restructure those state-owned companies so that the state would not lose money, but to provide more revenue from those companies. 

 

 

He stated that they also talked about mining, with a particular emphasis on Jadar, and added that the production of lithium batteries would mean "billions more per year" for our country and that we would make a huge difference compared to all other countries in the region.