Serbia is the main foreign trade partner of Spain in the Western Balkans and is responsible for more than half of the exchange between Spain and this region, said José María Blasco Ruiz, Director of the Sector for Infrastructure, Health and Information and Communication Technologies of the Spanish Export and Investment Agency ICEX, which is in the Hyatt Hotel, together with the Trade Department of the Embassy of Spain in Belgrade, organized the “Western Balkans-Spain Multilateral Opportunities Days” business forum.
“When we talk about the Western Balkans, 47 percent of Spanish imports come from Serbia, and 58 percent of Spanish exports to the Western Balkans end up in Serbia. Last year, for the first time, our exchange exceeded one billion euros, which is 113 percent more than in 2019,” said Ruis for Tanjug.
He rated as very positive the fact that this exchange is not only growing but also balanced, so that both Spanish exports to Serbia and Spanish imports from Serbia have recorded an approximate increase, which, as he points out, is the main characteristic of sustainable bilateral trade relations.
“Events like this represent the pillars of future cooperation and the continuation of everything that has been done in previous years, i.e. to improve and upgrade the exceptional friendly political relations between the two countries in the economic sense,” said Ruis and emphasized that the business forum aims to strengthen the already very good relations of Spain in the region of the Western Balkans, especially with Serbia, and it is a continuation of very important events from last year, above all the visit of the Prime Minister of Spain, Pedro Sánchez, and the forum held last year by Serbian and Spanish companies.
The head of the economic department of the Spanish Embassy in Serbia, José López Tomás de Carranza, said today that last year was important not only in the field of political and institutional relations between the two countries, but also in terms of trade exchange, which for the first time exceeded the amount of one billion euros.
“This is an indicator of great opportunities and potential for improving further cooperation and partnership between our companies. I would also like to highlight the positive trend, not only last year but in the last three years, since bilateral cooperation, trade cooperation has increased by 113 percent, which is probably the biggest growth that Spain has achieved in bilateral cooperation with any European country,” De Carranza told Tanjug.
He also said that many Spanish companies are present in Serbia today, as well as that the interest of Spanish companies in doing business in Serbia is growing, and some sectors could be particularly interesting.
“Recently, direct flights to Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia and Malaga have been introduced, and we hope that this will contribute to more Spaniards visiting Serbia, as well as more Serbs visiting Spain. There is mutual sympathy between our two peoples and I hope that all this contributes to getting to know each other better and cooperating as much as possible,” De Carranza concluded.