Pharmaceutical companies have invested more than EUR 800 million in Serbia

Pharmaceutical companies and their suppliers have invested over EUR 800 million into Serbia so far, the largest chunk of which in towns and municipalities of Vojvodina. According to participants in a roundtable, meeting to discuss potentials of Vojvodina pharmaceutical industry development in Vrsac, Serbia has the potential and room for the arrival of new pharmaceutical companies, but it is necessary to think up a strategy for drawing them in, because this industry brings technology, employs highly qualified workers, and pays high wages. The meeting was held within the project "Business friendly environment as a lever of development" created by National Alliance for Local Economic Development (NALED) and Provincial Secretariat for Interregional Cooperation and Local Self-Government.

According to Provincial Secretary for Interregional Cooperation and Local Self-Government Branislav Bugarski, development strategy for pharmaceutical sector has to be created on a state, as well as a local level. Good example is the municipality of Vrsac which has developed Industrial-Technology Park, and immediately after Stada, attracted other foreign investments, such as "Fresenius medical care ", "Lamp east", "Ave Pharmaceutical".

- Center of pharmaceutical industry is in Banat, actually in Vrsac and Zrenjanin, and according to our experience, investors go where tradition of certain production exists. It is highly important for Vrsac to continue development of its Industrial Technology Park, invest in scientific research and develop business incubator. Zrenjanin needs to help Jugoremedija develop – said Bugarski.

As Vladan Atanasijevic a president of NALED Managing Board said, towns and municipalities will have significantly more success if they target investments for economy branch which has the largest number of available resources and to offer friendly business environment.

- Investors expect fast procedures from local administration, a fair treatment and a predictable environment. Local self-governments could reach those standards through NALED’s certification program for municipalities with friendly business environment. This program clearly shows how to improve administration and make an environment attractive for investments. Quality of the program is proved by the fact that our neighbours, Croatia, Macedonia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, have decided to join it and certify their local self-governments – said Atanasijevic.

According to experience of Vrsac in pharmaceutical industry development, president of its municipality Cedomir Zivkovic recalled that Industrial Technology Park has been developed on the initiative of Hemofarm company with the idea to gather suppliers and other companies from that business sector in order to reduce production costs. Today Vrsac has, not only drugs factory, but also factory for drugs packing and related equipment. Development of ITP, supported by EUR 3 million from EU, helped the municipality to obtain EUR 750,000 for business incubators within park, as well as EUR 800,000 for intermodal terminal study development, in order to additionally reduce costs of transport for Vrsac companies.

As a consultant of NALED and a health expert Simo Vukovic specified, it is important to attract new investments in pharmaceutical industry, as one of five main sectors in EU, believed to be the key for future development of European and world economy.

- Serbian pharmaceutical industry is not well developed and rarely participates in gross domestic product. When it comes to export, this industry does not belong into first ten sectors, while it has the fifth place in the import sector, which is proved by the fact that we spend EUR 600 million for foreign medicines annually. Our chance is in generic drugs production, due to their 20% lower price – said Vukovic.

Representatives of local self-governments and economy have heard also different experience of investors in Vrsac. Vojislav Bugarski, a production manager in "Fresenius Medical Care Serbia" said the factory will be built in this municipality due to friendly environment for investment and qualified workers.
CEO of "Ave Pharmaceutical" Aleksandar Brankov reported his positive experience in investments here and pointed out certain problems with republic administration, giving an example that the factory has been built in nine months while it took them fifteen months to complete red tape procedures. Ljubisa Milosavljevic, a CEO of "Lamp East" advised municipalities to be transparent and obey agreements with investors.

NALED Beograd

Pokrajinski sekretarijat za regionalni razvoj, međuregionalnu saradnju i lokalnu samoupravu Novi Sad

Grad Vršac

Hemofarm a.d. Vršac

STADA Grupa

Fresenius Medical Care Srbija Vršac

Ave pharmaceutical d.o.o. Beograd

Lamp east d.o.o. Vršac

friendly business environment as a lever of development of Vojvodina

pharmaceutics

NALED

Branislav Bugarski

Industrial Technology Park Vrsac

Stada

Vladan Atanasijevic

Simo Vukovic

Vojislav Bugarski

Aleksandar Brankov

Ljubisa Milosavljevic

generic drugs