April 1, 2010

1. April 2010.

Belgrade- The municipality of Vrsac is the absolute winner of a competition of local self-governments in promotion of investments in Serbia, which was organized in Serbia by the USAID’s Serbia Economic Growth Activity (SEGA) Program. The second award was won by Leskovac, while the third one went to Uzice. The awards were presented to the winners by the following members of the Serbian government: Mladjen Dinkic, Bozidar Djelic and Oliver Dulic. In the “Invest in Serbia” competition, which lasted from March 1 to 31, representatives of 28 Serbian municipalities had a chance to present to the professional jury their economic and investment potentials, as well as to exhibit those potentials at the investment fair that was held at the Belgrade-based Hyatt Hotel yesterday.

In addition to three major awards, representatives of the USAID and companies that participated in award – giving, such as “Telenor”, the “Austrian Airlines”, the “Commercial Bank – Belgrade” etc, presented the competitors with five special awards. to the competitors. A special award for an extraordinary effort made in local development went to Smederevo. Bujanovac was awarded for the best partnership project in the field of local administration and economy. According to opinion of the audience, the municipality of Bujanovac also had the best appearance at the fair that was held at the “Hyatt” Hotel.

In the estimate of the professional jury, Subotica produced the best quality of promotion material on investment potentials (website, investment leaflets, info material), whereas the city of Novi Sad presented the best data to its potential partners.

Along with what was presented on the municipalities’ stands, two panel discussions under the title of “From Economic Viewpoint – Cooperation between Private and Business Sectors” and “Ask Ambassadors – Serbia on the Global Market” were held. Ambassadors of the USA, Spain, Germany, Slovenia, Austria and Italy participated in the latter panel discussion. Mary Warlick, the US Ambassador to Serbia, said that “all the participants were the winners” since they had produced convincing stories on why their municipalities were most attractive to investors. She also said that the government, too, should have such a story, and added that the next step to be made was the completion of reforms in Serbia.