Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic has hailed the ironclad China-Serbia friendship and the expectations for greater cooperation between the two countries.
Vucic, during an interview with China Media Group (CMG) in Beijing, which aired on Friday, expressed his hope of conducting deeper cooperation with China in the field of science and technology.
"In the future, we see a lot of opportunities in cooperating on the most important issues like artificial intelligence, new technologies and I asked for transfer of some technologies today. It was big economic problem for us, the steel mill in Smederevo, we were losing tens of million [dollars] on a monthly basis. We were in an economic crisis when we started begging Presidency Xi to help us on that. He sent company HBIS from the province Hebei to Smederevo and they took control of that steel mill. Still they keep 5,000 people employed, they give them good salaries, good wages. They're the second biggest exporter from Serbia," said Vucic.
China's assistance has enabled Serbia to outperform many European countries, Vucic said. He also reiterated his firm stance on the one-China principle.
"They helped us in a crucial moment and they boosted actually our economy and we had bigger growth rate than many regional countries and than most of the European Union countries. As you can see, China was with us. It means you can build ironclad friendship in the difficult times. Friend in need is a friend indeed. That was my duty to be always with China. If someone says something about Taiwan, that's Chinese territory, that's Chinese land. They have the right to do whatever they want. I have one principle, which is one China, which I respect. I don't have any kind of dilemmas on that and that's it," said the Serbian president.
Vucic also elaborated on five aspects that could attract investment of Chinese companies into Serbia.
"First of all, it's something that should not be underestimated, which is our love for Chinese people. Number two, we are able to subsidize the important investments. Number three, the top leadership of the country, really takes care of the biggest and the most important investments that are coming from China. Number four, I believe that we successfully created good business environment. I think that there are the presence of many Chinese companies is like creating new cells for new Chinese companies. They can cooperate by themselves, within themselves and also selling everything to European market from Serbia and to some other markets as well. At the end, I believe that we have a very skilled labor force, very good, talented young people, which is very important," he said.
President Vucic on ironclad friendship, future cooperation between China, Serbia
