New digital platform for data on locations and possibilities for investment in 11 towns and municipalities in Serbia

How to attract as many investors as possible and how to present them with the capacities available are the problems faced by all local self-governments in Serbia. This job will be made easier with a new information system that is being prepared in 11 local self-governments in Serbia by experts of the Republic Geodetic Authority and the Swedish Cartographic Society.

Free zones have been operating successfully in Pirot and Vranje for years, offering numerous advantages to investors. Representatives of the Greek-Bulgarian textile company Malevos, who employ fifty workers in Pirot, are aware of this.

– We have been in Pirot for two years and we are satisfied with the conditions and the workers. We are planning an expansion of the production. To us, it's good that the customs processes and the forwarding are available in one place, and the new highway on Corridor 10 is an advantage as well – says Albena Nikolova, the director of Malevos.

Both Pirot and Vranje have attracted a lot of investments, but, in addition to free zones, both towns have plenty of other locations they can offer to investors. Unresolved property relations and the excessive fragmentation of parcels are a problem.

– There are not enough locations available and those that are in our register have an unresolved property status as property of former state companies – emphasizes Marija Djosic, the head of the Office for Local Economic Development in Pirot.

Boban Stankovic, the coordinator of the Office for Local Economic Development in Vranje, says that they have considered offering the existing industrial capacities in old industrial zones which are no longer operational to potential investors.

Thanks to the project carried out by the Republic Geodetic Authority and the Swedish government, a national register of investment maps will be formed in Serbia, which should help potential investors.

– The aim is to facilitate communication between the investor and the local self-government, allowing the investor to access the location in order to make further investments. On one hand, this strengthens the economy of Serbia, while on the other, it increases the economic capacities of a town or a municipality – says Marina Jovanovic Milenkovic of the Republic Geodetic Authority.

For a start, the new digital platform will allow investors to see all the data on the locations and investment possibilities in 11 towns and municipalities of Serbia.

Republički geodetski zavod Beograd

Kancelarija za lokalni ekonomski razvoj opštine Pirot

Swedish Government - Švedska Vlada Štokholm

Swedish Cartographic Society

Office for Local Economic Development Vranje

Office for Local Economic Development Pirot

Malevos

Albena Nikolova

Marija Đošić

Boban Stanković

Marina Jovanović Milenković

free zones

National Register of Investment Maps