Economic cooperation of Italy and Serbia will continue, and Italy will keep on investing into our country, Serbian Deputy Prime Minister Bozidar Djelic stated after a one-day visit to Milan, Italy.

“The meetings we held in Milan on Monday prove that Milan and Lombardy play a key role in relations between Serbia and Italy. The two countries annually exchange EUR two million in goods, and Italy recently invested EUR 640 million into Serbia,” Djelic stated for Tanjug, adding that Lombardy hold one third of trade exchange in total.

Djelic said that he reached an agreement on three chief issues in his meeting with region of Lombardy president and Milan mayor, as well as with Serbian businessmen and Italian delegates who gathered in Milan Chamber of Trade.

“We discussed further development of economic relations, keeping in mind that negotiations on six projects and investments from Lombardy are entering their final phase, and they cover rubber industry, IT, textile industry and furniture, in various parts of Serbia. That is an additional proof that the wave of Italian investments in our country continues,” Djelic said.

The second element of cooperation, according to Djelic, is supported by the fact that Serbia will soon apply as one of the countries that will cooperate in project “Milan Expo 2015,” similar to one help in Shanghai this year. Djelic stressed that this great international exhibition’s topics are agriculture and energy efficiency, both remarkably important for our country.