"Western Balkans Automotive Industry Excellence Center" to be founded in Serbia in association with European partners

Regional Chamber of Commerce of Kragujevac and its partners within EUROCHAMBRES's programme "Investment Promotion Partners" have finished the "Establishment of the Western Balkans Automotive Industry Excellence Center" project.

"Investment Promotion Partners" is an initiative of EUROCHAMBRES (the Association of European chambers of commerce with the headquarters in Brussels), and it is backed by European Union within the scope of CARDS 2005 Regional Finance.

The main aim of the project is to increase the level of competitiveness of the Western Balkans automotive industry in the market of foreign direct investments, as well as introduction of new services. The project is implemented by the Agency for Investment Promotion and Business Support in Central Serbia in association with the partners from European Union and Western Balkans.

Realization of the "Establishment of the Western Balkans Automotive Industry Excellence Center" project has the ultimate operational goal - the establishment of the Western Balkans Automotive Center of Excellence within the Regional Chamber of Commerce of Kragujevac and the founding of the Corresponding Center within the Chamber of Commerce of Tirane, of which main activities would be to promote territories of Western Balkans as attractive investment destinations in automotive industry and to attract foreign direct investments, as well as to stimulate innovations, research and development in existing automotive companies, education and introduction of quality standards.

Project partners

Within the budget of the project:

- Regional Chamber of Commerce of Kragujevac (in Serbia, the project will be implemented through partnership with the Chamber of Commerce of Serbia, Regional Chamber of Commerce of Valjevo, Regional Chamber of Commerce of Kruševac, and Regional Chamber of Commerce of Užice)

- EU partner – Chamber of Commerce of Leipzig

- Partner from Western Balkans – Chamber of Commerce of Tirane

Outside the budget of the project:

- IIWB – World Bank Group (the project backed within the scope of stimulus activities for development of regional projects and investment promotion agencies – Agency for Investment Promotion and Business Support in Central Serbia)

- SPARK – BSC Kragujevac (the project backed through financing of the study on current state of automotive industry in SME in the region and financing of introduction of quality standards for automotive industry)

- SIEPA

- City of Kragujevac

Regional Chamber of Commerce of Kragujevac and SPARK have agreed to resume successful cooperation by forming and networking corresponding centers in the Western Balkans countries where SPARK already founded Business Start-Up Centers (Montenegro, Macedonia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina) as a follow-up to existing project "Establishment of the Western Balkans Automotive Industry Excellence Center".

Establishment of BUSINESS NETWORK OF CORRESPONDING AUTOMOTIVE CENTERS OF WESTERN BALKANS with the Western Balkans Automotive Industry Excellence Center in Kragjevac and corresponding centers in Tirane, Bitola, Bar and Zenica, will lead to creation of BUSINESS NETWORK on the territory of Western Balkans in field of automotive industry with huge potentials for attracting foreign investments, stimulating regional development and cooperation and SME development, and finding foreign partners, as well as for further integration of the Western Balkans automotive industry into European and global automotive industry.