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Roundup: Serbia seeks Austria's support in uniting Western Balkan countries: PM

Xinhua, February 18, 2017 Adjust font size:

Serbia needs Austria's support in order to bring countries of the Western Balkans closer together, Serbia's Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic told visiting Chancellor of Austria Christian Kern here on Friday.

Addressing a joint press conference following a meeting with Kern, Vucic said he had presented Kern with a freshly drafted document that envisaged the establishment of a customs union among members of CEFTA (Central European Free Trade Agreement) that would, according to him, result in better connection among its member countries and help attract investors.

He explained this would bring members of CEFTA -- including Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), Macedonia, Moldova, Montenegro, and Serbia -- closer together and make their trade more efficient.

"This way we would become a much bigger market, one that would be much more attractive for foreign investors," Vucic said at the press conference, adding that the first consultations with leaders of Albania and BiH had already been conducted in that direction.

"This is the future of the region. The more wealthy and developed we become, the more investors we will manage to attract," he said, explaining it was the first time he had presented the paper in public.

Kern said that Vucic presented to him numerous initiatives, from infrastructural projects that will interconnect the region to the project of the customs union within CEFTA.

"I think that this is the right way to make the situation in the region better, while Austria also benefits from this positive economic growth," Kern said, urging for more engagement from the EU on supporting Serbia's EU path as well as the economic growth of the whole region.

Kern said the region needed to increase its efforts towards the EU in order to be integrated as soon as possible.

"Austria supports you, but I have an impression a lot more needs to be done -- such as infrastructure and highways -- because this is what brings countries of the Western Balkans together," Kern said.

Vucic said Austria was the number one investor in Serbia with some 500 companies which had invested around 3 billion euros (3.18 billion U.S. dollars) so far, while Kern stressed that it was in Austria's interest for it to remain in the number one spot. Endit