Sberbank Business Forum was held today in Belgrade in the presence of the management of Sberbank from Russia, the region and Serbia, as well as representatives of the Government of the Republic of Serbia, the diplomatic corps and the Serbian Chamber of Commerce.
For the first time, one bank has gathered more than 200 clients from Russia and Central and Eastern Europe, in order to strengthen mutual cooperation, exchange of knowledge, experiences and examples of good practice. In this sense, Sberbank Business Forum is a unique business event in Serbia.
The forum was officially opened by the Ambassador of the Russian Federation in Belgrade, H.E. Aleksandar Chepurin, while Marijana Vasilescu, President of the Executive Board also addressed the attendees.
“For seven years Sberbank Serbia has been operating on the Serbian market and has proved to be a stable bridge between Russian and Serbian companies during that time. The result of our work is to increase participation in foreign trade with Russia of 20 per cent and even 27 per cent in export support. As the current economic situation, in particular, the foreign trade balance of our country, despite the improvement in the past few years, still shows a deficit due to a smaller coverage of export imports, as the only bank in the Russian capital market, we decided to gather large companies of Russia, Serbia and the region, thus strengthening the foreign trade cooperation between Russia and Central and Eastern Europe, as well as our relationship with clients. On that basis, the Sberbank Business Forum was created. Therefore, it is a great honour for us today to welcome representatives of Russia’s largest retail chains – such as X5 Retail Group, OK Retail Group, Lenta, Dixi, Territorial Group, Magnum, as well as representatives of many companies from different industries,” said Vladimir Bošković, Member of the Executive Board of Sberbank Serbia.
At the initiative of Sberbank Serbia, the high representatives of the management of Sberbank from Kazakhstan, Belarus, Austria, Hungary, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and Slovenia were gathered at the forum, ready to exchange business experiences with their colleagues and clients from Central and Eastern Europe, initiate or strengthen cooperation and jointly find a way to overcome all the challenges they face in business.
Among the speakers of the Sberbank Business Forum were: Fabris Perusko, President of the ForteNova Executive Board, Tomislav Cizmic, CEO of Merkator and Alexander Idrisov, Chairman of the Strategic Partners Executive Board.
The biggest clients of Sberbank of Serbia and associates with Russia – Delta Agrar, Tarket and PDM AgroFruit – were present.
In the final panel discussion, moderated by Vladimir Bošković in front of Sberbank Serbia, Mihajlo Vesović took part in front of the Serbian Chamber of Commerce and representatives of Merkator, Tarket, Delta Holding, OK Retail Group and X5 Retail Group, symbolically rounding out all topics discussed during the Forum.