Nikolic: Significant relief funds - good news for investors

BELGRADE - Serbian President Tomislav Nikolic said that the donors' conference in Brussels was successful, adding that it showed that Serbia has friends around the world and that the world trusts Serbia, which is also good news for investors.

"It is the result of a policy that was pursued not only by the current government, but by generations before us,” Nikolic said in an interview to Radio and Television of Serbia Thursday evening.

The donors' conference held in Brussels on July 16 gathered the representatives of 60 countries and 23 international organizations, who jointly collected EUR 1.846 billion to aid Serbia and Bosnia-Herzegovina (BiH) after the devastating floods that hit the two countries in May.

Out of this sum, EUR 995 million will be allocated to Serbia and EUR 809 million to BiH, while EUR 42 million have been raised for cross-border projects mainly for the development of flood and natural disaster prevention systems.

Out of the total funds raised for Serbia, EUR 115 million are grants and EUR 880 million are highly favorable loans.

Nikolic explained that the aid does not consist of grants alone, but also loans redirected from international funds which Serbia would otherwise not have the right to use.
“These are cheap loans that we have never been able to take out. They can be regarded as a gift because the loans we normally raise have higher interest rates," the president said, adding that this is far more than Serbia expected.

All international organizations assessing developments in the country have shown the entire world that they have faith in Serbia, Nikolic said.

He underlined the EU's decision to grant Serbia EUR 80 million as a clear signal that Serbia...