Serbian President Hypes New IKEA Store Opening

Aleksandar Vucic's article, published on Wednesday in Serbian tabloid Alo, linked the upcoming opening of the new IKEA store to what he described as his own government's success.

"IKEA does not exist where there is no desire to think and work in a new, different way," Vucic wrote in the article.

IKEA had a retail outlet in Serbia until 1991, but the company decided to pull out because of the war.

Vucic said that its return showed that the country was now growing economically.

He insisted that Serbia would have a "magnificent future", and that is why the IKEA store was opening.

The company will open the doors of its 30,000-square-metre Belgrade store on Thursday at 10am.

In his article, Vucic also praised IKEA's work ethics and said they were needed in Serbia.

"IKEA changes the way you think. Every individual and the entire society," he insisted.

"And, in my opinion, it is, along with the Labour Law [which gave employers more power], the most significant 'blow' to obsolete and outdated parts of the mentality, to collective laziness and incompatibility, as well as on the philosophy of life that has always been repeated to us that we should wait for someone else to do everything for us," he added.

State-owned newspaper Vecernje novosti reported in June that the store will offer 9,500 products, a restaurant, a bistro, a Swedish food store, a children's playroom and a car park for 1,200 vehicles.

The regional director of the company, Stefan Vanoverbeke, told the N1 television station on Wednesday that the prices in the Belgrade store will be the lowest in the region.

"We are very proud and happy because of our first activity in Serbia," Vanoverbeke said.

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