Serbian Prime Minister Ivica Dacic said Monday that Serbia and Italy would ratify an energy agreement any day now.
Asked why it had not been done before, the prime minister said annexes needed to be adjusted according to the interests of Italy, Serbia, Republika Srpska and Montenegro, who all participated in the agreement.
“Ratification will come very soon because it is in our interest to do so. We are standing firmly behind that agreement,” Dacic said after a meeting he had with Italian Foreign Minister Giulio Terzi Monday.
“Italy is Serbia’s biggest trade partner after Germany and Russia. The opportunities for cooperation may get even greater. Over the last 10 years, Italy has invested over 800 million euros in Serbia,” Dacic said.
The Serbian prime minister sent a clear message to Italian workers that Serbia did not want to take jobs away from them, but rather to help them achieve even greater profits and make their jobs more secure.
Dacic said that Fiat would be Serbia’s biggest exporter both in the current and the following year.
“It is not only Italy’s Fiat, but also a domestic company,” said Dacic.
The Italian minister qualified the strategic partnership that existed between the two countries, and the fact that Italy was Serbia third biggest trade partner, as very good, adding that the two countries trade volume amounted to EUR 2 billion.
Italian investments are very important as well, Terzi added, recalling the fact that about 500 Italian companies, employing 20,000 workers, operate in Serbia at the moment.
He also expressed his expectation that Serbia would take part in EXPO 2015 in Italy, which Dacic confirmed would be the case.
Source Tanjug
