Subotic: Investments from China Don’t Mean That the Country is Counting on Serbia in the Long Run

Strahinja Subotic of the European Policy Center stated on the Dan Uzivo TV show that the Chinese investments in Serbia had accelerated and that the European investments had slowed down, mostly because of the war in Ukraine. However, the situation in the economic market has stabilized since last year and, this year, the EU investments have been five times bigger than the Chinese ones.

Let us remind that, this year, the Chinese investments in Serbia nearly became equal with the investments for the EU. Is that bad news for the western diplomats, as The Times writes, and what makes the Chinese investments attractive?

– We can say that the Chinese investments are accelerated and that the European ones have slowed down. There are several reasons for that. When it comes to the slowing down of the EU investments, it is crucial to mention that the second quarter last year was crucial. We’re talking about the war in Ukraine and the second quarter reflected the situation in the field, namely, the fact that the EU had a problem, considering that a new front had opened on its eastern border. It caught them off guard and the focus shifted to sanctions toward Russia – Subotic explained.

According to him, the economy of the European Union has suffered changes due to it, whereas their market became unpredictable, which resulted in the reduction of investments outside its borders.

– Still after the second quarter, the trend started reverting, so I would say that that’s the key explanation why, in 2022, the EU experienced a considerable fall regarding the total share in the foreign investments in Serbia – Subotic added.

He reveals that unofficial surveys show that, in the first quarter of this year, the EU invested EUR 500 million in Serbia, whereas China invested EUR 100 million.

He notes that China has increased its investments in the past few years.

– Due to Kosovo, in 2008, Serbia extended a hand to China and placed it among its four pillars or priorities of its foreign policy. That showed China that it could count on us in the long run. The authorities changed in the meantime, but our policy toward China has remained the same – Subotic reminded.

He notes that, when it comes to the Chinese investments in Serbia, the economic aspect is important as well, because each one of its projects in Serbia is carried out under their conditions.

– The most frequent condition is for Chinese workers to come to work here, so there are now around 30,000 of them. They partially return their profit to their country and all that ore, that is, metal, that they extract is transferred to China and processed. So, they only take the raw material from us – N1’s interviewee said.

Centar za evropske politike Beograd

European Policy Center

Strahinja Subotić

Chinese investments in Serbia

European investments in Serbia