Today we are hosting an entry written by Nick Groves, Head of the Embassy Commercial Section.
As with the UK, Serbia spends a lot of time and effort in trying to attract foreign businesses to set up their operations here. It has often been pointed out to me that British investors in Serbia are notable by their small number. In these tough economic times, it was a fair bet that the situation wouldn't change. So it was a happy task for me last week to travel down to Ljubovija on the Bosnian border to attend the opening ceremony of the Veliki Majdan mine.
Veliki Majdan is a formerly state-owned lead and zinc mine nestled in the hills above the beautiful Drina river, which separates Serbia from Bosnia. In recent times, it had fallen on hard times and had been put into liquidation, meaning that the mine had not functioned for the past several years. Three years ago, the UK-based company Mineco Ltd, bought the majority share of the mine and set about restoring it to a workable state. The first year alone was spent pumping water from the many flooded levels. The company then had to repair collapsed tunnels and replace damaged or missing equipment. Finally, after investing over €3 million, the mine is back in production.
All this is good news for Ljubovija. With over 200 employees, Veliki Majdan is the largest employer in the area. Although only in the initial stages, the mine produces 4500 tonnes of ore each month, which already matches its former level of production. And with the product being exported for use in the automotive industry, the re-opening of the mine is also good news for the wider Serbian economy.
Interestingly, the new ownership of Mineco Ltd brings the mine full circle. It was the British who first exploited Veliki Majdan at the end of the nineteenth century. The cobbled road they built from the river to the mine is still in use. I wish the new owners and the workers of Veliki Majdan every success in the future.
Posted at 16:34 12 October 2009 by Stephen Wordsworth | Comments[0]
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On 25 February I went for a short drive today down to Smederevo, a city about an hour away down the Danube. I had visited before, as a tourist - the town is most famous for its castle, which has a fantastic location right by the river. It was built very quickly, in the first half of the 15th century, as Serbia's rulers tried to survive between Hungary and the Ottoman Empire. It finally fell to the Turks in 1459, which marked the end of the medieval Serbian state.
This time I wanted to find out more about the town from the official point of view - what the plans of the city's government are, what opportunities there might be for business and investment. I had a good meeting with Mayor Umićević and his team, and learned a lot about their ideas for the development of education, industry and tourism. I even learned that one small British company is based there - I hadn't been aware of them before, although I know now that they have been working there for some time. Some of the town's plans involve, or could involve, the UK - we agreed that I would look into what we could do. It was a really good meeting - I hope we can build on that.
Posted at 19:49 28 February 2009 by Stephen Wordsworth | Comments[3]
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On 5 February I hosted a reception to launch the Serbian end of the British-Serbian Chamber of Commerce (BSCC).
Trade between our two countries is growing well - it went up about 20 per cent last year - but we want to do more to promote awareness in the UK of the opportunities for trade and investment in Serbia, and vice versa. Sir David Roche, the BSCC Board Chairman, came out to Belgrade for the launch, which was even better attended than I had hoped, with a very wide range of Serbian companies represented. Fortunately it was a mild evening, so guests could spill out onto the terrace outside, or we would have been very squashed!
But that's a really good sign, and I hope that many more companies here and in the UK will sign up, now that they have seen and heard all about it.
Posted at 15:01 07 February 2009 by Stephen Wordsworth | Comments[0]
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Friday 5 December: Another trip, another project - this time to attend the passing-out parade at the Police Basic Training Centre in Sremska Kamenica.
The British Council, with Embassy funding, have been working with the Interior Ministry to encourage candidates from Serbia's many different national communities to put themselves forward for the police entrance exam, and to support them through the application process. We have worked with the Centre to produce advertisements and materials in Albanian, Hungarian, Romanian, Roma, Ruthenian, Slovak, Bulgarian and Croatian, as well as in Serbian.
It seems to be working - the proportion of applications from minority community members is up this year. The thinking behind it all is simple - in a democratic society, effective policing needs the consent and cooperation of the whole community, and to get that you have to have good representation of all groups.
It's a lesson we have learned in the UK. We haven't achieved complete success there yet, by any means, but we know what needs to be done and we're sharing that experience now here in Serbia.
The ceremony itself was really uplifting, with proud parents, brothers and sisters crowding around, a band playing, marches and folk dancing, and all the newly-graduated cadets throwing their hats into the air. I wonder if they ever get the right ones back? Then at the end I was given a good-bye gift of a picture of a policeman, drawn by a 6-year old Art Workshop pupil - here it is
and it's now on our Embassy wall!
Posted at 19:56 08 December 2008 by Stephen Wordsworth | Comments[0]
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It's been a busy period, and so it is a good time to launch a blog!
The biggest item on my recent agenda has been the process of getting agreement to the launch of EULEX (the European Union Rule of Law Mission in Kosovo) throughout Kosovo.
On the one hand, Belgrade wanted EULEX to have UN Security Council approval, and for it to be status-neutral, with no link to the plan of the UN Status Envoy, President Ahtisaari. On the other, Pristina were insistent that EULEX should be based firmly on its Constitution. We got agreement in the end, building on the fact that the EU as an organisation has no position on Kosovo status, since not all member states have recognised Kosovo's independence.
If the EU has no position, the presence of an EU Mission, which all its members - recognisers and non-recognisers alike - have authorised, cannot confer status either way. And with Security Council approval for the UN Secretary General's report, the mission is launched.
Its task is important - to improve the standard of law and order throughout Kosovo. Once it gets started we hope that even those who were opposed to it will come to see that it is in the interests of all communities.
Apart from that I have been out of the office a lot, mainly in connection with a series of projects we have been working on here:
• the 5th anniversary celebration of the Youth Initiative for Human Rights
• a ceremony to celebrate the successful conclusion of a project
On the same evening as the press conference I was in Novi Sad for the opening of a British section in the city library. My wife read a story in English to some 40 children of around 8 to 10 years old. They all seemed to enjoy the story, and the cakes she brought with her. As always I am left enormously impressed with the standard of spoken English among people here, including the very young. I then went on to help the British Council launch their portfolio of booklets in Serbian, aimed at helping people to understand how to help disabled people take their proper place in society. It's a big and important area; every society defines itself by how it treats its weakest members. We have had some really good cooperation with local organisations here in Serbia; there is some good progress.
That's it for the moment - and in future I shall try to blog more often, and to make my entries shorter. But if you want to comment on any of this, or on anyting else to do with the United Kingdom's work here, just add your comments! There’s more about me on my about page.
Posted at 13:21 05 December 2008 by Stephen Wordsworth | Comments[17]
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