The Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Serbia (CCIS) has had a busy 10 days, saying that it will launch a business innovation hub within the Center for Digital Transformation by the end of October, with this statement following an announcement that it will soon hold a series of workshops “dedicated to promoting financial mechanisms in the UK.”
With regard to the former, CCIS President, Marko Čadež said during an October 10 presentation of the national project „Serbia, Country of Science, Country of Innovation” that the new hub will enable cooperation between big companies from traditional industries and innovative and academic communities.
Čadež also announced that agreements will likely be concluded with the German and Austrian creators of an innovative AI-based platform made for to aid “traditional companies” in need of innovative technological solutions and integrate them into their business models.
Only days earlier Čadež and British Ambassador Edward Ferguson jointly stated that Serbia and the UK have room to cooperate more intensively in areas such as energy, construction, and ICT services and expressed readiness to cooperate in the implementation of workshops aimed at promoting financial tools offered by UK Export Finance. Currently, within British export agency funds, some EUR 12 bln euros are available for the realization of projects in Serbia and the region, as well as for the financing of joint projects of Serbian and British companies in third markets.
„We want to organize a series of workshops dedicated to the promotion of financial mechanisms that UK Export Finance offers. Also, next year we are planning to organize a conference in London dedicated both to b2b matching of Serbian and British companies in the IT sector, and promotion of the Western Balkan region as an investment destination,” said the president of the CCIS, emphasizing the importance of the WB region when it comes to rare metals and pointing out that it is important for the region to access the EU’s single regional market as soon as possible.
The trade exchange between Serbia and the United Kingdom in the period from 2012 to 2022 ranged from EUR 289.2 mln to EUR 788.3 mln and it increased by 172.6 percent over the last 11 years. During that time exports from the Republic of Serbia increased four times, while imports from the United Kingdom almost doubled.
Photo of CCIS President Marko Čadež and British Ambassador Edward Ferguson, courtesy of the CCIS website.
