Berlin: Ambassador Janković at the online conference "East Brandenburg meets the Balkans"

In her speech, Ambassador Janković spoke about bilateral relations between Serbia and Germany, emphasizing the high level of political dialogue and excellent economic relations between the two countries.

The ambassador pointed out the priorities of the Government of the Republic of Serbia and institutional support for strengthening economic cooperation between Serbia and Germany through the Chamber of Commerce and the Development Agency of Serbia. She especially emphasized the potentials for cooperation offered by the "Open Balkans" initiative and called on German companies to monitor its development and participate in projects.

Janković emphasized that, despite the pandemic, an extremely high level of political dialogue with Germany was held, as evidenced by the visit of Chancellor Angela Merkel to Serbia in September, as well as the visit of Vice President of the Bundestag, Claudia Roth, in October this year.

She also stated that Germany is the most important trade partner of Serbia, one of the largest investors and donors, with which the volume of foreign trade cooperation is constantly increasing, even in the year of the pandemic. Emphasizing that over 400 German companies are active on the Serbian market, Ambassador Janković said that they employ about 75 thousand people, noting that our goal is for that number to reach 100 thousand soon. An important factor is the dual education, which is realized in cooperation with numerous companies from Germany.

"Our citizens who live and work in Germany, and according to official German statistics there are about 237 thousand of them, while according to our estimates, taking into account the origin, there are between 500 and 700 thousand of them, represent a strong cohesion factor and potential for improving overall relations between the two countries", the ambassador said.

Janković emphasized that Serbia's membership in the EU is the most important foreign policy priority of Serbia, believing that the new methodology will have a stimulating effect and will speed up the negotiation process.

In addition to European integration, regional cooperation is at the very top of our priorities, with Germany playing an important role in this through the "Berlin Process" initiative, in which Serbia is one of the most active members. An important step in advancing regional co-operation is the "Open Balkans" initiative, launched by Serbia together with Northern Macedonia and Albania but open to all from the Western Balkans, which aims to connect the region and prepare it for EU integration, when the conditions for that are created. She called on German companies to take advantage of the opportunities provided by the "Open Balkans" initiative by participating in its projects.

She also pointed out that the Chamber of Commerce of Serbia and the Development Agency support the participation of our businessmen in some of the most important fairs held in Germany.

In the end, she emphasized the readiness of the Serbian Embassy in Berlin to provide all kinds of help and support to German and Serbian companies that are interested in establishing cooperation.

In addition to Ambassador Janković, the conference was also attended by Frank Aleter, Director of the German-Serbian Chamber of Commerce from Belgrade, Anja Hildebrand from Alca Mobil (ALCA Mobil Logistics + Services GmbH) from Storkow and Marlen Bennewitz from IHK Ostbrandenburg, as well as representatives of companies from Serbia and Germany that are interested in cooperation.