Stojiljković: Friendship between Serbia and Italy has been further strengthened

• Serbia: a nation close to Italy and the heart of Europe because of its history, tradition and strategic importance. For many Italians, however, it is still little known: the recent presentation of the "Welcome to Kosovo" comic became an opportunity to talk about it. Despite very close relations, which have strengthened over the years and have now reached a primary business partnership, Serbia is a country that in 2021 still seems distant to many Italians. In Trieste, we met with the Consul General of the Republic of Serbia, Ivana Stojiljković. Why is that so, in your opinion?

How much we will get to know a country and its people depends primarily on our personal interests, contacts and the media that surround us. The unfortunate circumstances of the war that have accompanied the Balkan countries for the past three decades are the reason why the image of Serbia is most often distorted. Diligent work is now required and time to correct this injustice, but we are successfully moving towards that goal. Although most Italians do not even know that as many as 17 Roman emperors came from the territory of Serbia and that Serbs and Italians have been greater friends for centuries than history has shown, because of this unfortunate epidemic, many of your citizens have started learning about our country as it really is. The friendship between Serbia and Italy has been further strengthened in these difficult times. During the first wave of the epidemic, in April 2020, President Vučić sent a plane with equipment to Italy to help, while the Italian Government sent the strongest medical team to Serbia already in June, which with its experience helped our doctors in the most difficult moments.

The current government, led by President Aleksandar Vučić, has positioned Serbia as a reliable partner. Friendships and cooperation with the West and the East have enabled us to supply ourselves with most of the vaccines on the market and start the most successful mass immunization, not only for ourselves but also for the countries in the region.

In a country with just over seven million inhabitants, 5.15 million doses of vaccine have been administered, and Serbia has donated vaccines to its neighbors – Montenegro, Northern Macedonia, the Republic of Srpska and Bosnia and Herzegovina. Also, citizens of neighboring countries could register and get vaccinated during their visit to Serbia.

The image of Serbia is changing for the better every day, and people get to know us just the way we are: honest, hardworking, cordial, peaceful.

• How many Italians visit Serbia a year? What are the primary destinations and reasons for traveling?

In recent months, we have received an increasing number of inquiries from Italian citizens who want to travel to Serbia. We do not have a precise number, but if you take into account that close to 2,000 Italian companies operate in Serbia, then that number is measured in tens of thousands of only those who come for business. Cultural exchange is also at a high level, so, thanks to the Italian Cultural Center in Belgrade, thousands of Italian artists visit Serbia during the year. The last artistic cooperation was realized between the region of FVG (Piccolo Opera Festival) and the city of Kragujevac.

When it comes to exclusively tourist visits, Italians are most interested in visiting numerous monuments of Serbian cultural heritage, medieval monasteries, fortresses and Neolithic settlements, such as Lepenski Vir and Viminacium (where Roman emperors came from), numerous museums, among which the Nikola Tesla Museum and the Ethnographic Museum stand out.

• And how many Serbs live in Italy?

A significant number of Serbian citizens live in Italy. The exact number cannot be determined because the Republic of Italy is conducting an official census of only those who only have Serbian citizenship, and this year it is 33,322 people and most of them are in the regions of Veneto and FVG. The number of Serbian citizens who also received Italian citizenship is many times higher.

• Which Italian companies from the Northeast are the most present in Serbia? In which area is the Friuli Venezia Giulia region present?

Economic cooperation with Italy is extremely developed and diversified. Italy is the second most important foreign trade partner of Serbia and one of the largest foreign investors. Trade in 2020 totaled 3.354 billion euros. About 1,850 Italian companies in partial or majority Italian ownership are registered in Serbia, which employ about 39,000 workers. Among the most significant investors are Intesa Sanpaolo, Fiat Chrysler, UnipolSai S.p.A., Ferrero, Cogeme Group...

In the last few years, the Veneto region has been in the lead with the number of investments, while the FVG region has become an even closer associate with the development of the Port of Trieste and its significant positioning on international trade routes. When it comes to this region, another big investment is on the horizon. At the beginning of the year, I had the opportunity to visit the company "Danieli" in Udine and to start serious negotiations with them about investing in Serbia.

We are also talking about investing in the field of environmental protection. I am sure that the stabilization of the epidemiological situation will open numerous more possibilities for economic cooperation with the FVG region.

• What is the situation with logistics and transport?

Belgrade and Trieste are the two most important crossroads and contacts between east and west. That is why my first activities, after coming to the position of Consul General, were aimed at strengthening the road and air connections between these two cities. The director of the company Samer, which already operates successfully in Serbia, Enrico Samer, the president of the board of the Port of Trieste – Zeno D’Agostino and the director at the Trieste airport, Marco Consalvo, were my interlocutors and partners in this task. The introduction of the direct flight between Belgrade and Trieste was a step away from realization, when it was, unfortunately, disrupted by the epidemiological situation. Also, we discussed the strengthening of direct railway traffic, all with the goal of faster and stronger trade and economic contacts.

• Many in Italy talk about Serbia standing out and looking to Europe, thanks to the promise of new enlargements to the east, and the same number of people talk about Serbia, whose economy is still in great crisis, a country in which, apart from in the capital/centers, there is a lot of poverty that makes young people go abroad. There is a promise of EU accession that will never be realized. What do you think about that? What does reality say?

EU accession remains a key foreign policy priority for Serbia.

In this very important and difficult process for Serbia, in which we face the most difficult conditions, Italy is an extremely important partner, because it supports the continuation of the enlargement of the European Union and supports Serbia in the process of European integration.

The IMF recently estimated that Serbia coped well with the COVID-19 pandemic, and economic recovery is expected to continue in 2021, and the decline in economic activity in 2020 is estimated at around 1% and is one of the lowest in Europe.

In addition to the direct assistance that the state paid to families four times, at the beginning of this year, salaries in the public sector, pensions and the minimum wage were increased.

• And young people leaving your country?

For the past two years, the Government of the Republic of Serbia has been working intensively on the program of returning people from abroad, but also on keeping young people in Serbia. This is primarily achieved through infrastructural and economic development, but also through concrete measures: tax incentives for employment of people from the diaspora and our people who were educated abroad, vouchers for the diaspora launched in cooperation with the Science Fund, electronic recognition of diplomas, tax incentives for founding startups and innovative companies. Also, thanks to a large number of foreign direct investments, Serbia is developing evenly and there are no pronounced migrations to larger cities in search of work. Nearly 400,000 people returned from abroad last year, and most of them remained to live and work in Serbia.

• Russia has changed its economic policy since 2015 in order to resist European and American sanctions; Serbia, with President Vučić in charge since 2017, has shown readiness to embark on a similar path of renewal, although in a different context. How have the ways of international development of companies in Serbia changed?

Serbia is a country that offers quality and balanced prospects for development and is becoming a new expanding market rich in resources in the field of technology and services with the greatest added value. After the pandemic, there was an additional increase in the interest of Italian companies to do business in Serbia, and they see Serbia as a market for product placement and a place of favorable production for export, especially to countries with which Serbia has preferential trade agreements. Thanks to numerous agreements on foreign trade relations, Serbia is an excellent point for investors to access the market with about 1.3 billion customers, where they can operate with special benefits.

Today, Serbia is the leader in Europe in the number of attracted foreign direct investments and has been declared the best investment destination in the world. The business environment is stable, and Serbia offers transparent and competitive market conditions and a high-quality workforce – 24% of people in Serbia have a university degree, 86% actively speak English, 12% German, 6% French or Spanish and 4% Italian.

• And when it comes to Italy? Important companies have decided to expand their plants abroad, so they have set up plants in Serbia as well: not only in terms of production, but also advanced services. Is Serbia growing together with the companies that now work in Serbia, or is there a risk that it is only cheap labor?

Economic cooperation between Serbia and Italy has developed almost in parallel with bilateral diplomatic relations established more than 142 years ago. Trade and economic ties have been further strengthened by the existing Italian-Serbian Strategic Partnership Agreement signed 12 years ago.

Italian companies different in size, activity and geographical position are equally present in Serbia.

Belgrade, like Trieste, is a crossroads between east and west, through which important corridors of road, water and air traffic pass.

Of the total number of foreign investors, Italian companies currently account for 19.4%.

The first important Italian investment in Serbia was Fiat, with the help of which branches of numerous companies from the automobile industry were later opened. There are banks, insurance companies but also companies from the Italian textile industry such as Pompea, Golden Lady, Calzedonia, Olimpias.

Today, Italian companies are represented in almost all economic sectors, construction, IT sector, renewable energy sources, footwear, packaging, mechanical elements, wood processing and furniture industries and agriculture. Also, Italian companies are distributed evenly, from the north to the south of Serbia.

On this occasion, I invite Italian companies to a business partnership with Serbia.

• Serbia is a country-bridge between Asia and the West. A traditional friend of Russia, with which it has very strong economic and strategic relations, Serbia has managed to maintain and develop good relations with the United States, even though it has not given up on strategic investments by China. Serbia is part of the New Silk Road in logistical terms; it is equally part of the New Digital Silk Road. What is the secret to the success of this diplomacy?

The secret of success is in the state-building and domestic policy, but also in the honest diplomacy led by the President of Serbia.

Only those who have clear visions and views on the interests of their own people, which are most often part of broader regional, European and even world interests, can have friends on all four sides of the world and the respect of the greatest statesmen and politicians.

Serbia is a good and reliable partner, which is why it has strong economic, strategic and friendly relations around the world.

• Economic cooperation with China enables Serbia, these are the facts, to solve certain delicate aspects that are very difficult for its economy, which has remained very slow for many years. This is a great opportunity for development. Can Serbia be an example for other nations in Central Europe? And, having in mind the agreements signed at the end of 2020 between President Vučić and Prime Minister Hoti, which blocked the entry of large "colossal" Chinese companies that deal with communications, will they manage to maintain the balance?

As President Vučić pointed out, the Washington Agreement in no way compromised the cooperation with any of the previous partners. China was one of the most important partners for Serbia in the fight against the corona virus. Apart from helping with medical equipment, most of the vaccines were bought from China, laboratories for testing the virus were opened with Chinese donations, and a factory for the production of vaccines of the Chinese company Sinopharm is being built in Serbia.

By the way, Serbia is criticized by those who have much greater cooperation with China.

Mutually beneficial cooperation between Serbia and China started the industry and renewed the infrastructure in Serbia.

In addition to Russia, the United States and the EU, China is one of the countries with which Serbia is building a strategic partnership. We are part of the Belt and Road initiative with the countries of Central and Eastern Europe (17 + 1), for the reopening of Western trade channels that follow the ancient Silk Road, which is a key precondition for global stability.

• Serbia and the accusations regarding corruption and lack of freedom of the press and any real political opposition in the Parliament. These are accusations that are often heard against Hungary and, more recently, Poland, and which represent the main obstacle to even closer relations with the European Union. What is the position of the Government of Serbia?

The fight against corruption and crime is one of the key tasks of the current government in Serbia. Proof that the state is seriously dealing with these problems is that no one who violated the law was protected, regardless of position and political affiliation.

As for the media freedom, the President recently pointed out that representatives of all media do their job in an atmosphere of complete freedom of expression and that he remains personally committed to that, since media freedom is one of the greatest achievements of democracy.

The media in Serbia have the right to express their opinion and political position, and our government once supported the organization of a public exhibition, at which 2,500 copies of front pages, news, reports, comments, analyzes and caricatures from the media from the last two years were shown, which look critically at the government.

• Serbia and religion, Serbia and youth. In Trieste, the Serbian Orthodox community is very well known and it got close, on many occasions, to the Italian population; at the same time, numerous Muslim Serb families also live in Trieste: the youngest, who are no longer different from other peers except within their family traditions, which remain in the private sphere. How much has Serbia changed when looking at its youth? What do young Serbs dream about? What do the young Serbs from Trieste dream of, who make up a very important nucleus of the population of our capital in the FVG region?

Serbia is a multicultural country, as is Italy, where everyone, regardless of nationality, lives together without any differences.

Young people in Serbia are our greatest pride. They have goals and reach them in every area. In just the last few days: the first tennis player in the world, the Serb Novak Đoković, won the 20th trophy, Vasilije Micić – declared the best European basketball player, Nikola Jokić – the best basketball player in the world, Serbian female basketball team – European champions. Young people win first places in science, culture...

Our Serbs in Trieste dream the same, proud of their ancestors, tradition and culture, they continue to elevate their community, each of them investing in their own development and giving a selfless contribution to society.

I am especially glad that the relationship between our two peoples is at the highest level in these three regions, which are under my jurisdiction – Friuli Venezia Giulia, Veneto and Trentino Alto Adige. It is a pleasure to be a diplomat where there is high respect and cooperation with the receiving country. Of course, our diaspora deserved such a relationship, nurturing good neighborly relations for centuries, respecting Italy as a good host, with its hard work, honesty and contribution to the community.

Recently, the Association of Serbs in Italy organized a successful promotion of the book "Benvenuti in Kosovo" in the premises of our Consulate General. The large number of Italians present was a confirmation that we want to know more about each other, and that is the basis of true friendship and cooperation.

In the coming period, many important activities will be organized by Serbian associations, and one of them is the Exhibition of the greatest Serbian scientist of all time - "Nikola Tesla – a man from the future" which will be held in Trieste from 18 September to 10 October and which, with the support of the Ministry of Culture, the Consulate General of the Republic of Serbia in Trieste, the Serbian Orthodox Church Municipality and numerous Italian partners, will be organized by the Serbian Cultural Youth Association in Trieste.   

• Belgrade is the capital that has undergone a strong renewal in recent years. Maybe too strong? Will Serbia present itself even better and how?

Belgrade is a cosmopolitan city where everyone feels welcome. Foreign investments do not create dependence, but provide capital that enables the opening of job positions, the largest construction sites, the construction of Serbia and a better quality of life.

There is a rule that whoever once sees and feels the positive energy of Belgrade and any part of Serbia, returns to them forever. That is why I use this opportunity to invite our friends, Italians, to visit and get to know Serbia, the beauties of our country, the rich Serbian history and culture, kind and hospitable people and the traditional Serbian kitchen.

Long live Serbia and long live Italy!