00:00Serbian President Alexander Vucic said Chinese robotics technology will soon come to his
00:06country, bringing with it a completely new development energy.
00:10Vucic also said he could see how robots can be used in everyday life as he visited automotive
00:15parts firm Mint in the city of Janjin.
00:18The company has invested in Serbia since 2018 and now operates around 10 factories across
00:24the country.
00:25Earlier, I spoke to Marco Cades, President of the Serbian Chamber of Commerce and Industry
00:31about the importance of Vucic's visit.
00:33The relationship with China, economic relationship and political relationship with China really
00:38substantially changed our country.
00:41So first, in the first wave of investment with infrastructure and energy, you can see hundreds
00:49of kilometers of highways and railways built together with Chinese companies, which really
00:56changed the country, not only in the infrastructural way, but also in investment attraction.
01:01So now where we are standing, we are the second, China is the second biggest, the second largest
01:08FDI foreign direct investor in Serbia.
01:10China is the second trade partner, our first export destination from zero Chinese investors
01:17just 10 years ago.
01:18Now we have 2000 Chinese companies in Serbia, only 37 large Chinese companies attracted almost
01:268 billion euros of investment and created 40,000 jobs.
01:32And, you know, just today, today alone, there was in Beijing, President Vucic and his delegation
01:39signed a new contract worth of 1 billion euros of new investment.
01:44So this is a really, really substantial thing.
01:47It's exciting, it's future focused, but it's a bit of a balancing act, isn't it, Marco?
01:52Because while Serbia is deepening economic ties with China, you're also moving closer to the
01:57European Union.
01:58So how do you get that balance right?
02:01I will not talk about balancing because we see ourselves as a bridge and bridge is not
02:10balancing.
02:11Bridge is not about choosing sides.
02:13It's about being a bridge connecting.
02:17And I think this is how Serbia sees itself.
02:20And if you see the Serbian connections with the rest of the world, of course, the European
02:26Union is our strategic goal and the membership in the EU is our strategic goal.
02:31But we are now a country which has a network of free trade agreements with a lot of parts
02:37of the world.
02:38And we can assess the consumers.
02:41It's about 2.7 billion consumers all around the world with our network of free trade agreements.
02:46So basically, we see ourselves as a bridge.
02:52And you can see more of that interview on the agenda this weekend here on CGTN.
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