The main reasons for Serbia’s success were the economic reforms, which, beside other things, have shortened the time it takes to register a property and deal with construction permits, and the time taken to register a company.
Serbia also has access to the European Union’s single market for its industrial goods through a Stabilization and Association Agreement signed, and it ranks 44th in the Doing Business World Bank list.
The report indicates that in 2016 Serbia attracted more than 12 times the greenfield FDI that would be expected for an economy of its size.
Also, the number of announced projects increased by 35% in 2016 compared to the previous year.
The index measures the appeal of countries as destinations for greenfield FDI relative to the size of their GDP.
fDi Intelligence uses a methodology devised by Unctad, the UN trade and development body, for overall FDI and applies it only to greenfield FDI — leaving aside mergers and acquisitions, intracompany loans and other forms of cross-border investment.