Serbia is a country with the potential for the development of logistics and industry, it was concluded at the panel held on Wednesday, June 19, within the REBEC 2019 conference. The moderator of the panel was Alexander Samonig of the company
Ecovis SEE, and the panel also included Vlatko Djuricek of
CTP Invest, Jelena Drazic of
Siemens Serbia, Nikola Djogatovic of
Colliers International and Darko Djoric of Mind Group.
Increasingly more foreign investors are coming to the Serbian market, and one of the challenges all companies face is how to find the workforce.
– When Siemens came to Serbia, we had trouble finding, not just qualified workforce, but any kind of workforce at all. That's why we worked on explaining to people why working for a large, international company was good. Furthermore, it was also difficult to find suppliers as as well. We now organize education for young people, there are always jobs available at the factory, we see our employees as part of our family, part of a large, successful system and that's our guiding principle – said Jelena Drazic of Siemens Serbia.
CTP Invest is building logistics and production facilities in several locations in Serbia, and, in addition to carrying out the construction, it also advises its clients in all segment.
– For each client, we first do a market analysis. We talk to clients to determine what they need and we pick the location based on that. For example, if the company is in the high-end production business, if it needs engineers, Novi Sad is an ideal location. The same is true of Kragujevac. The location for raising the facility needs to be chosen wisely. All aspects, including the future workers, need to be taken into consideration – emphasized Vlatko Djuricek of CTP Invest.
Nikola Djogatovic of Colliers International, a real estate consultancy, says that several factors are important in picking a location for the investor.
– The price, the existing infrastructure and the available workforce. These are the things that each investor needs to take into consideration when starting a business in a country. Today, thanks to the internet, an enormous amount of information is available to everyone, but what's important is to have the true, official data, so as to be able to make the right decision in the end – Djogatovic pointed out.
He also sees the constant growth of construction costs as one of the problems in Serbia.
– There have been situation where a client calculates the costs of the construction of a facility, after which building and other permits are obtained, and then, when the construction is ready to start, we realize that the costs have grown by around 35% in about a year. This is certainly something that we need to take into consideration at any moment – Nikola Djogatovic said.
Djuricek agrees with him.
– The price of the land you're buying also needs to be chosen carefully. The truth is that construction costs are growing and that the trend will continue. However, there's still room for good tenders, lower prices and a higher quality of construction.