Serbia issues a siren call to IT firms

Wednesday, 19 November 2008

Serbia’s new administration is trumpeting the growth in information technology companies attracted to the country.

The new Minister of Trade, Predrag Bubalo, said that the best recommendation to new investors is from those already in Serbia, citing the experience of GoIP International. The Danish based global internet telecommunications provider chose Belgrade as a hub for its operations in May. GoIP’s CEO, Ivan Solvason, told Pathfinder Business: ‘We continue to work on new prospects in Europe, but like Nicaragua in Latin America, chose Serbia because it gave us the best access to market.’

A spokesman for the country’s Investment and Export Promotion Agency said Serbia will continue with corporate profit tax at 10 per cent. ‘A workforce with 1,500 new technology graduates a year has attracted the likes of Microsoft and Cisco,’ he told Pathfinder Business.
Microsoft has operated in Belgrade since 2005 while the financial technology company Euronet has been present since 2002.

Srdjan Djordjevik, sales director at GoIP, said: ‘It is easy to interact with Serbian authorities and the tax policy is very stimulating for investors. Serbia has very good higher education and technology graduates are sophisticated in the latest technologies.’

Speaking at the Foreign Direct Investment Conference for South East Europe, Economic Minister Mladan Dinkic predicted that Serbia ‘would continue to enjoy robust economic growth of seven per cent a year in the next four years’.