Feature: Car dealers hoping for sales at Serbia's international motor show

The 52nd International Motor Show in Serbia kicks off Friday in Belgrade, the capital of Serbia, marking the start of a race among major companies to attract potential buyers with new models with interest free loans and other benefits.

The show is one of the biggest and oldest of its kind in the region, with the first show held in 1938. This year's event includes around 410 exhibitors from 26 countries including Britain, Germany, France, Czech Republic and China.

Zeljko Sertic, Serbia's economy minister, opened the fair illustrating the importance of the automotive industry in Serbia for its 2 billion euro (about 2.16 billion U.S. dollars) contribution to the economy every year, while car exports make up 14 percent of the country's total export.

According to the fair's project manager, Zoran Lupsic, the motor show is held every two years draws an average of 130,000 visitors over the course of ten days, and besides car models, there are motorcycles, oils, service equipment and other products from the automotive industry.

"What makes this fair different from other international fairs where manufacturers show up in order to develop their branding and show the novelties is that Belgrade's fair focuses on sales," he told Xinhua, adding that the Serbian car market had not yet recovered from the 2007 fall and there were only 19,000 sales made last year.

Lupsic said he expected the sales at this fair would show a slight recovery from this trend.

He noted that three car companies from China were present at the fair - The Great Wall Motors, DFSK Motor Holding and Infiniti Motor (registered in Hong Kong) - while numerous products from Chinese companies were indirectly presented, especially in the field of motorcycle equipment and garage service equipment.

Chinese car manufacturer, Great Wall Motors, appeared on the Serbian market only six months ago, and built a distribution and dealership network that employs around 150 local people.

Radovan Beric, director of the company that represents Great Wall Motors in Serbia, said they were proud to present the biggest private Chinese manufacturer at Serbia's international car show for the first time.

"For the first time, the audience of this fair can see a first-class Chinese manufacturer in Serbia. The fair will help us show our brand to the market, create brand awareness," Beric concluded.

Among the stands was Italian Fiat Automobiles, a company that produces one of its models named 500L in the Serbian town of Kragujevac, but was presenting some of the latest models of Alfa Romeo, Jeep, as well as a 500L-model that runs on the compressed natural gas, methane.

Boris Cuckovic, marketing manager of the Fiat-Chrysler auto group, said they were ready for the motor show and that a satisfying number of customers had already visited the stand to get information on the new offer.

"We exhibited the best that we currently can, both in terms of brands and new models," he said, pointing at the powerful looking Abarth racing car exhibited at the stand.

Among the exhibitors are BMW, Mercedes Benz, Volkswagen, Opel, Isuzu, Mitsubishi, Honda, Jaguar and many others that will each premier several models.

The car show will, besides the latest cars and motorcycles, amuse its visitors with prize games, beauty competition, a parade of old models, and driving simulations. Endit