Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy and Regional Development Mladjan Dinkic will travel on a working visit to Berlin on 24 August, where he will head a state business delegation at the session of the German-Serbian Business Council.

Dinkic will have separate bilateral meetings with German Minister for Economic Development and Cooperation Dirk Niebel, Foreign Policy Advisor to the German Chancellor Christoph Heusgen and State Secretary of the Ministry of Economics and Technology Bernd Pfaffenbach.

Dinkic will have separate bilateral meetings with German Minister for Economic Development and Cooperation Dirk Niebel, Foreign Policy Advisor to the German Chancellor Christoph Heusgen and State Secretary of the Ministry of Economics and Technology Bernd Pfaffenbach.

Officials and businessmen from Serbia and Germany will discuss improvement of economic cooperation and the Serbian business delegation will include representatives of the state electric power industry Elektroprivreda Srbije, railway company Zeleznica Srbije, telecommunication and postal company PTT Srbija, Jat Airways and others.

Around 250 German companies and representative offices do business in Serbia and employ more than 20,000 workers, in all crucial sectors of the economy – industrial cooperation, banking and finance, transport, energy and tourism.

Total German investment in Serbia amounts to €1.3 billion, making Germany the fourth largest investor in Serbia (following Austria, Greece and Norway).

The largest German investors are companies Stada, Metro Cash&Carry, Messer and Henkel, and important ones are also Leoni, Reum, Draexlmaier and Grammer.

German companies on the Serbian market contribute to the progress of Serbia’s overall economy since they are mostly export-oriented and employ a large number of workers.

One of the positive effects of German companies on the Serbian economy is the establishment of European standards in the field of the environment, usage of renewable energy sources and sustainable development.

Germany is Serbia’s largest foreign trade partner in the EU as well as globally, with a 2009 trade volume of approximately €2 billion (exports €624.3 million, imports €1.4 billion).

A special contribution to the improvement of bilateral economic cooperation is given by the Delegation of the German Economy for Serbia and Montenegro, the German Economic Association and the Germany Trade & Invest organisation.