The Paris office of the Serbian Chamber of Commerce is in talks with potential investors that plan to enter the Serbian market in 2011 and 2012, head of the Paris office Vesna Pekaj told Tanjug on Tuesday.

According to her, the French companies already operating in Serbia have plans for additional investments, while new companies are expected to invest in key sectors such as the automobile industry.

"I have to remind you that France was one of the first investors in Serbia, for example Lafarge, but then came a slump," Pakaj noted and added that trade between the two countries is expected to rise in 2011.

In the first nine months of this year, the trade between Serbia and France totaled EUR 542 million, Pakaj specified and pointed out that the growth trend should continue with another 20 to 30 percent in 2011.

In addition, she expects the export structure to improve, as Serbia is exporting more products of iron, steel and non-ferrous metals - an area which had also seen a certain falloff.

"France is a huge market with 67 million people, the sixth biggest exporter and fourth biggest importer, the world's second biggest investor, it has great resources and we need to work on boosting the unsatisfactory level of trade," she explained.