BELGRADE, September 08, /ITAR-TASS/. Serbia should export only top-quality goods to Russia, Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic said in an exclusive interview with Mikhail Gusman, the first deputy director-general of the Itar-Tass news agency, on Monday.
"The Russian market is very demanding and we should offer our best possible goods to it,” Vucic said, noting that Serbia was in a position to meet top European standards.
"Russia is a big market which needs plenty of fruit, vegetables and meat. We want to attract Russian investments and Russian investors, especially in the field of processing fruit, vegetables and meat, and create small factories which could process agricultural raw materials and later export products to Russia and not only to Russia but also to the European Union, Turkey and the Eurasian Union states such as Kazakhstan and Belarus. This is what Serbia is offering,” the Serbian prime minister said.
He added that 502 Serbian enterprises had been offered for public privatization and that several Russian companies had already submitted their applications and letters of intention.
“We expect Russian investors to participate in privatization of several enterprises. But we want really good investors who would care both for the employees and the company which they are going to develop,” Vucic said.
He also pledged that Serbia was not going to impose any sanctions against Russia.
“Today, Serbia is a free country. It has embarked on the European path. But no one can order Serbia to ruin its relations with Russia. Serbia has demonstrated that it is a country which should be respected,” the Serbian prime minister said.
During the interview which Vucic gave in his native Serbian, he found time to say a few words in Russian.
“As you know, I am learning Russian but I cannot speak fluently yet. The Serbian and Russian peoples are very close. We have many projects. We need to do a lot of things in future. I would like to say that Serbia is a free and independent country. Serbia is on the European path but Serbia has not imposed and is not going to impose any sanctions against Russia,” the Serbian prime minister said in Russian.
The full text of the interview with the Serbian prime minister will be published in the Rossiyskaya Gazeta daily and shown in the Formula Vlasti (the Formula of Power) programme on Rossiya 24 TV news channel.