Deputy Prime Minister for Economic and Regional Development Verica Kalanovic and member of the management of Gorenje Velenje Branko Apat yesterday signed a Memorandum on the construction of a new Gorenje factory in Valjevo.

Following the signing, Kalanovic stressed that the Slovene company will build another factory in Valjevo in which an additional €20 million will be invested and 400 new workers employed.

Kalanovic announced that the state will give incentives for the project to the amount of 20% of the total investment.

Apat stressed that thanks to this investment, Valjevo will become Gorenje’s centre in Europe for cooling devices – refrigerators and freezers.

He said that the second factory in Valjevo should be built within next year and a half once all the necessary permits are obtained.

Apat said that now Gorenje in Valjevo produces between 400,000 and 500,000 refrigerators a year, while with the construction of the second factory the existing capacity will be doubled, with the annual production of approximately one million refrigerators.

The new factory in Valjevo will be built as part of Gorenje’s strategy for expanding its production capacity by 2015.

Apat recalled that Gorenje has a plant in Stara Pazova which manufactures boilers and that the factory in Zajecar makes washing machines.

With the construction of its second factory in Valjevo, Gorenje will employ more than 1,500 employees in all four factories, and the company’s total investments in Serbia will amount to more than €70 million, he specified.