Western Balkans regional investment platform to be presented in February 2018

The Joint Chamber of Commerce of the Western Balkans, with the seat in Trieste, will present its first product, a regional investment platform meant for potential investors in the economies of the region, in late February in London, announces Marko Cadez, the president of the Chamber of Commerce of Serbia (CCIS).

Thanks to an online investment platform, according to Cadez, also the chairman of the Managing Board of the Chamber Investment Forum of the West Balkans Six (KIF ZB6), investors will be provided with key macroeconomic indicators, information on the current laws and regulations, financial and other incentives for investments, potential suppliers that companies choosing to operate in the region can count on and other pieces of information in a single place.

This year’s London Investment Forum, dedicated to the countries of the Western Balkans, will be held on February 26 with support of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and is a part of the Berlin Process concept of the Western Balkans countries’ accession to the EU.

– In the past six months since the foundation of the Standing Secretariat of the Chamber Investment Forum, a team of the Trieste office has been formed. It will work on joint projects that are realized with support of the EU as part of the Berlin Process – Cadez told Tanjug.

The Berlin Process, he explains, has an increasingly strong economic dimension, in addition to the political one, which is based on a revitalization of intergovernmental relations and the resolving of the remaining open issues in the region.

– The aim is to use regional economic integration, tighter infrastructural and business bonds, the removal of obstacles to doing business and investing and an enhancement of our economies’ competitiveness to create conditions for more trade, more investments and more new jobs in the region – Cadez points out.

The realization of the action plan for the regional economic space with 115 measures, which all the governments of the region have obliged to carry out, will also contribute to this, he explains.

– In our small economies, it is important to harmonize regulations, phytosanitary and veterinary certificates, to synchronize inspection supervision, to form a single market without barriers and to make the regional economic space more stimulating for our companies’ operations and for foreign investors – Cadez explains.

The example of cooperation between Serbia and Albania, he says, shows the effects of the strengthening of regional cooperation the best.

– Serbia and Albania are the two economies of the region which have made the biggest progress in connecting their business communities in the past year, using mechanisms for the strengthening of regional and bilateral cooperation alike. In a year since the first forum in Nis, we have been dedicated to interconnecting our companies. The result is that the mutual trade has increased for both sides by more than a third, nearly 40%, and that we already have contracts on the formation of joint companies and other business arrangements – Cadez says.

Privredna komora Srbije

EBRD Evropska banka za obnovu i razvoj Beograd

CCIS

Joint Chamber of Commerce of the Western Balkans

Chamber Investment Forum of the West Balkans Six

KIF ZB6

regional investment platform

London Investment Forum

EBRD

Berlin Process

Western Balkans

Standing Secretariat of the Chamber Investment Forum

action plan for the regional economic space

regional economic space

economic connecting in the region

regional cooperation