00:00Well, China and Serbia are already working closely on several projects in green energy and mining.
00:06For more on this, my colleague Sally Berdet spoke with Serbia's mining and energy minister Dubravka Derević.
00:12Serbia has a very strong ambition in lowering CO2 emissions, in switching more to renewable energy sources.
00:25Of course, this transition takes time and costs money.
00:30However, we have already tripled the renewable energy sources in our country.
00:35We do still need baseload energy, which so far we use from coal, our domestic resource.
00:46We will be using gas more in the future as a transition fuel for the baseload.
00:51But we do intend to increase even more significantly the share of renewable energy sources.
01:00We have, to that extent, have several options for renewable energy capacities and offering market premiums from the state through
01:15Contract for Difference, meaning that we helped in the past the contractors and the bidders, developers of renewable energy projects,
01:25to actually complete their projects to actually complete their projects because of the support from the state.
01:29There are a lot of Chinese investors, indeed, in renewable energy, both wind and solar.
01:35We do intend to deepen the discussions with potential Chinese companies and developers in this country on possible strategic partnerships
01:48with our state-owned electricity producer in order to make sure or see whether and where there are potentials for
01:58joint ventures.
01:59China is also quite a key player in Serbia's mining sector.
02:04I know there's been great success for the two countries working together, particularly in copper mining and making that more
02:11environmentally friendly.
02:12Looking at this visit to China, where are the opportunities to deepen cooperation in mining?
02:19What would you like to see?
02:22Well, I have paid a visit to China myself two years ago with the Zijin Company, which is present in
02:32our mining sector very strongly.
02:34Since 2018, we have signed a memorandum of cooperation of broadening their activities in the eastern Serbia, where we still
02:42have quite significant deposits of copper and gold.
02:45In 2000, slightly before 2018, President Vucic and your president, Xi Jinping, have indeed discussed the involvement of Chinese companies
02:59into the field of mining in Serbia.
03:03And that has materialized through Zijin Investments, several billion dollars investment up to date in eastern Serbia.
03:12And today, we have the production of around 219,000 tons of copper, thanks to the two companies operating in
03:22Serbia through Zijin Group.
03:24That makes Serbia the second largest producer of copper in Europe.
03:28After Poland, there is the potential for more.
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