Representatives of home appliances, tools and car parts maker Bosch said Thursday the plant in Serbia will serve primarily as a base for supplying the Central European market.

After signing an deal to open a factory in Pecinci in northern Serbia, representatives of the German company pointed out Serbia is a good place to invest due to suitable infrastructure, availability of good workers and the possibility of cooperating with universities to train young experts.

The facility in Pecinci is part of the electrical drives division, which employs a total of 12,000 people in 12 production plants across the world. According to representatives of the German company, construction will start in early 2012, while production should commence in early 2013.

Head of the electrical drives division Udo Wolz said the facility in Serbia will put out high-quality product and thanked Serbian President Boris Tadic on his support in getting the project off the ground.

He pointed out the deal signed today is of strategic importance to Bosch and will help it expand further in the European market. Serbia's Minister of Economy and Regional Development Nebojsa Ciric pointed out Bosch's arrival shows that Serbia is attractive to foreign investors, that it is a politically stable country and that the government measures implemented over the last year are producing results.

He said this investment, and those that are still to come, are the core of the government strategy to attract investments in export-oriented production and added that this is the only way to combat the world economic crisis.

Ciric said Serbia is the regional leader this year in attracting direct foreign investments, and that it has convinced over a hundred companies in the past two and a half years to invest in Serbia and not some other country.

Pecinci Municipal President Sinisa Vukov said at the signing that in Bosch, his municipality is getting the best reference for future investors.

The Bosch plant will stretch across 22,000 square meters and will be serviced by 60 employees to begin with. The Bosch Group is a leading producer of automotive and industrial technology, power tools, security solutions and household appliances.

In fiscal 2010, some 285,000 associates generated sales of EUR 47.3 billion. It is estimated Bosch sales will exceed EUR 50 billion by the end of 2011, with the number of employees rising above 300,000.