12.10.2019.
Cornerstone laid for new defence industry factory in Kuršumlija
President of the Republic of Serbia and the commander-in-chief of the Serbian Armed Forces, Aleksandar Vučić, has laid today the cornerstone for the construction of the Kuršumlija Metal Machining Plant - Combat Complex Systems defence industry factory on the section Pljakovo-Mačkov put.
The cornerstone was laid by defence minister Aleksandar Vulin, director of PE Yugoimport SDPR Jugoslav Petković, mayor of Kuršumlija Radoljub Vidić, and the ceremony was attended by secretary general of the Serbian President, Nikola Selaković, chief of General Staff of the Serbian Armed Forces, General Milan Mojsilović, ministers in the Serbian Government and numerous citizens.
As President Vučić pointed out, this is not a factory only of the state of Serbia, this is a factory of “all citizens who live here and all workers who will work here”.
- Go ahead and start construction and work immediately so that people can see when the state of Serbia starts building something that it can quickly build and employ people. By May, June, we must have 80 employees, and two years later, we will have 300 people. It is not a small business for Kuršumlija and not a small number of employees for this area, but it is more money for the Municipality to be able to solve other infrastructure problems, President Vučić said.
He added that there would be many more soldiers in Kuršumlija.
- This means a new life for Kursumlija, more people who will work together with them, and it also means a lot more optimism and hope than there has been so far, Vučić said.
Talking about the new plant, he said it was a “huge investment”.- It means 20 plus 25 million euros, where 20 million euros are just construction works for metal machining, for our 'Miloš' and 'Lazar', our machines that we made and that we sell all over the world. In this way we wish to breathe new life to our people in the south of Toplice, to our people who always defended their country heroically and who have never received anything from the state in return, the Serbian president said.
According to the director of PE Yugoimport SDPR, in 2012 they began to transform the company “from a trader to the largest manufacturer of arms and military equipment in the region”.
- We tried to be better, we followed the vision of the Government and our President Vučić that only through job creation and making new value can we be competitive in the world market. From 2000 to 2011, Yugoimport SDPR made a profit of two billion and 400 million dinars; from 2012 to 2018 it was more than 15.5 billion – seven times more in a twice shorter period of time. That is why we are in Kuršumlija today and we will continue like that, Petković said.
Mayor of the municipality Vidić emphasised that it is a historic day for Kuršumlija today “because there have been no such investments for more than 30 years” and thanked president Vučić for taking care of the Toplica District and its citizens.The factory, which is to be built on around 17,000 square metersin in three phases, will employ 300 workers.
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