Cooperation between Lombardy and AP Vojvodina

The delegation of AP Vojvodina, headed by the Vice-president of the Provincial Government and Provincial Secretary for Economy, Employment and Gender Equality, Miroslav Vasin, accompanied by the Provincial Secretary for Culture and Public Information, Slaviša Grujić, Director of the European Affairs Fund of AP Vojvodina, Siniša Lazić and representatives of Vojvodina Investment Promotion (VIP), has visited Lombardy, following upon the cooperation between AP Vojvodina and the Italian region of Lombardy. On that occasion, the Memorandum of Cooperation between Lombardy, the most developed Italian region and one of the most developed ones in Europe, and AP Vojvodina was signed.

The Vice-president of the Provincial Government and Provincial Secretary, Miroslav Vasin talked to the Secretary for International Cooperation of Lombardy, Francesca Brianza about economic cooperation, especially about the investment opportunities in AP Vojvodina and invited businessmen in Lombardy to invest in Vojvodina.

Vasin indicated that Vojvodina and Lombardy were the two most developed regions in their countries contributing to a great extent to GDP. He reminded of the fact that in Vojvodina there were 39 Italian enterprises employing about 8500 workers and that the investment into the companies was about 700 million EUR.

“I expect that the Italian investment will also continue in the future, in particular, because Vojvodina has been ranked the seventh best region for investment by the prestigious Financial Times”, said Vasin and added that more than 40% of total foreign investment in Serbia was in Vojvodina.

Significant economic cooperation with the region of Lombardy has been developed within the European Entrepreneurs Association – Italy (AIME), whose Secretary General, Gianni Lucchina expressed his satisfaction with the establishment of AIME representative office – European Entrepreneurs Association – Serbia and of Vojvodina Info Centre, which are aimed at the businessmen of both regions.

During the discussion in the comune of Varese being a part of Lombardy, it was defined that agriculture, textile and metal industry, IT sector and culture were the areas where enterprises and institutions of the two regions could achieve considerable cooperation.

In Varese, VIP held a presentation on the opportunities and advantages of investment in Vojvodina, which was attended by the businessmen of that province.