Vucic: We will travel 1.5 hours to Nis, 27 minutes to Novi Sad! You can't have coffee in that time

Faster and bigger changes are happening than during and after the Second World War, the global economy is changing. That is why it was important for us to enter an economic burst, and the results can already be seen, said the President of Serbia, Aleksandar Vucic, in his address to the public.

Recommended

He pointed out that a flash analysis is expected, according to which Serbia will have among the best results in Europe.

"We already have some of the figures. Our industrial production increased by 2.6 percent compared to June last year, which is a real small miracle and I congratulate companies in Serbia and the citizens on an almost unbelievable result," he pointed out.

He believes that Serbia will not have a double-digit decline, unlike many countries in the world and Europe. That, he adds, will give our country a momentum for years to come.

As he said, expectations due to coronavirus and the consequences of the pandemic are that Serbia will not have a double-digit decline in growth at a time when 90 percent of European countries will have a decline of minus 12 or minus 14 percent.

"Our assessment is that we will have minus 9.9 percent, but today I can tell you that it will do better than that and I expect growth by the end of the year, when a vaccine becomes available in December," the president stressed.

He pointed out that he is convinced that Serbia would be the best in Europe with growth around zero.

"We'll keep public debt at around 60 percent"

Photo: Tanjug/Dragan Kujundzic

"We will keep our level of public debt around 60 percent, we will never return to that level of 79 percent," he said.

He stated that there are currently 61,303 construction sites in our country. That's 16,000 more.

"At this moment, Serbia is building three highways, and it will start working even harder," the president said, speaking about infrastructure projects.

He stressed that everything is being prepared for the works on a fast railway to Nis, which will enable us to reach that city from Belgrade in an hour and a half, at a speed determined by engineers. Vucic announced that a trip to Novi Sad will last 27 minutes.

"That's revolutionary. We will be arriving from the center of Belgrade to the center of Novi Sad in 27 minutes. During that time, you can't even get to have a coffee," he stated.

He added that he will have to deal additionally with the mining and electricity sectors, and to see what can be done in that field in the coming period, in order to achieve the same significant results as in other economic areas.

His message was that he would monitor figures related to the coronavirus pandemic and stressed that it is visible that results are achieved when citizens are disciplined, and thanks to the hard work, as he said, of the fantastic doctors and nurses.

"We want to find a model for free flow of goods and capital with Pristina"

Photo: Tanjug/Dragan Kujundzic

"We are interested in finding a model that will enable free flow of goods and capital, I think that is important for all of us," said Vucic.

He referred to the conclusions of the summit of the Atlantic Council held yesterday. He also mentioned the importance of the economy, in the entire region, and that conclusions from yesterday show that due to Pristina's decisions, Serbia loses 26,000 hours of waiting.

"The conclusions of the Atlantic Council are key, including the implementation of 4 freedoms of the EU: freedom of movement of people, capital and services, and it is spoken in a special way about us losing 26 million hours in waiting of our trucks at borders, which is 7 percent of total operating costs - how many billions we could save," he said.

In that sense, Vucic stated that 17 percent of our export goes to the region of the Western Balkans.

As he said, Serbia has decided in favor of peace and stability in the region and is absolutely committed to that, which is why it is conducting the dialogue with Pristina.

(Telegraf Biznis)