The fifth international arms and military equipment fair PARNTER 2011 will be held at the Belgrade Fair from 28 June to 1 July 2011. The fair will be organized under the auspices of the Ministry of Defense with Yugoimport SDPR as the co-organizer and the Belgrade Fair as the main organizer.

At the media conference held today the media was addressed by the Assistant Minister for Material Resources Ilija Pilipovic as well as dr Nenad Miloradovic, Assistant CEO of Yugoimport-SDPR and Mirjana Lukic on behalf of the main organizer.

Ilija Pilipovic said that the defense industry of Serbia was the main generator of the economic growth of our country. Since the previous PARTNER arms fair held in 2009 until today, our country made half a billion USD worth of exports, with the defense industry factories employing some 10 000 workers, these factories being the largest companies in these towns.

The Yugoimport representative stated today that he would give a detailed announcement just before the start of the fair, adding that two systems which are being developed at the moment would be presented at the fair-the fire support system and joint maneuver forces system.

Ilija Pilipovic said that at this very moment it is hard to assess the exact number of possible participants at the fair, since the fair in 2009 saw 74 exhibitors while this year a hundred exhibitors are expected to take part.

Assistant Director of SDPR dr Nenad Miloradovic said that not only the companies of domestic defense industry but that complex defense systems will be presented at the fair, too, with other companies from Serbia being involved.

Miloradovic said that SDPR’s goal was to boost the production of home defense industry accompanied by a renewal of domestic technological base, that is, by developing companies from Serbia which can be involved into the production and developing of complex war equipment.

The representative of the Belgarde fair Mirjana Lukic said that the next Partner fair will be held in the Hall 1 of the fair so as to enable a large number of exhibitors to take part n the show.