27.09.2011.
Minister's interview to Danas daily
WE ARE GOING TO TRIPOLLI
If all goes well, Angola will become Serbia’s major gateway to sub-Saharan Africa and a major partner in the defense industry. We have opened the doors for cooperation in Indonesia as well, and Iraq remains an important partner for us, too. Soon I will formally request that the Defense Ministry delegation travel to Libya. We are ready to go to Tripoli as part of the UN peacekeeping mission, and to send a SAF medical team - he says, among other things, in an interview with Danas daily, Serbian Minister of Defence Dragan Sutanovac.
He also notes that "weapon dealers" have launched a brutal media campaign against him and the MoD.
In only a week you visited two continents, Africa and Asia, in search of new jobs for the Serbian defense industry. What are the results of your visit to Angola- The former Yugoslavia had very good relations with Angola, but unfortunately they were not cherished for a long time. This is the highest-ranking visit in the last 25 years. The talks we had with the Prime Minister and Minister of Defense, and the agreements of cooperation which we have signed, open up opportunities to start large, mainly infrastructure projects, which would bring significant benefits to our building industry as well. Probably the largest residential construction site in the world at this point is exactly in Angola. There is a site of spanning the area of several million square meters as a huge building project of modern housing and Serbia has a great chance there, you must use to enter into a "building site". WE are close to closing the deal to start constructing a military hospital modeled after our MMA construction of military hospitals, as well as their cadet training at our military schools, and we are working on how to start exporting our defense industry.
We visited a military air base, for which there is a reconstruction project, where we were assured they have need for a pharmaceutical factory, uniforms and protective equipment, ammunition and orthopedic devices and supplies. Serbia has knowledge and skills, and Angola is a large country, expanding rapidly, with a young population, which should employ the knowledge and manpower. The factories we are talking about, after construction, would be led by our people, from Serbia.
A country with such potential is certainly very interesting for Serbia. Where are our advantages over a much larger and richer countries?
- First, many top Angolan officials and army officers speak Serbian and who during the former Yugoslavia were educated in this region and maintain a special relationship with Belgrade. Secondly, our technical capabilities are very well known to them, because they use them. Thirdly, many Angolan doctors have completed specialization in MMA and now want to have a similar hospital in their country. They would practically copy the MMA, which means that thousands of their officers and medical students would be educated in our country, and hundreds of our experts would go to Angola, with the idea not only to build the hospital, but to run it as well.
What are the financial projections of these jobs?
- The projections are that they would generate the income once generated in the best years of the former Yugoslavia, which we have been striving to reach. If all goes well, Angola will become the main gateway to the entire sub-Saharan Africa and a major partner in the defense industry. Therefore, the potential profit would be increased manifold.
What are the results of your visit Indonesia
- As a country of 250 million inhabitants, with an army of 500,000 people, Indonesia is a huge market and there is great interest in cooperation with our country. During the several-day visit, we saw their production facilities, aircraft industry, the Army's equipment ... and there is room not only for the export of technology, but also for mutual development. Currently, the scope of our cooperation is about five million dollars, which is very small, considering the possibilities. This visit is aimed to "open doors" of Indonesia, and now we have to go to a specific attitude towards them. In any case, I expect that the 2012th be a record year for the Serbian defense industry jobs globally.
What about the contacts established with the Interim Government in Libya, given that Belgrade had agreed with Gaddafi on many lucrative jobs?
- We have established contacts, and soon I will officially request that the delegation of the Ministry of Defence of Serbia as soon as possible travel to Tripoli for talks on the possibilities for further cooperation in the areas of defense and military health, and how all the Serbian can assist Libya in this tumultuous period. We are ready to part of UN peacekeeping missions send a medical team of the Serbian Army in Tripoli, to assist the population, because they have a huge humanitarian problems.
To what extent the change of regime in North Africa and the Middle East has affected the plans of the Serbian defense industry
- They were surely affected, much because of the priority of the new government there to facilitate the life of the civilian population, now certainly can not put the defense in the foreground. But I also see a chance for Serbia, especially in the construction and reconstruction of infrastructure, roads, various institutions and the like.
Through WikiLeaks, there were American dispatches stating that the U.S. command in Iraq was against the sale of military equipment from Serbia Iraqi army, fearing, as they say, corruption and poor quality products?
- All transactions between Serbia and Iraq have been successfully implemented, and this land is our important partner, one of the largest. Thus, it appeared that there were no grounds for such information. There were no objections to our goods and the successful cooperation with Iraq continue.
To what extent the image of Serbia affect cases like the Serbian criminal group, who was caught in the trade of illegal software for mortars in the Southern Sudan
- Be sure to influence. In our country's defense industry employs around 10,000 people that is almost the same number of families depend on the business, and then a few irresponsible people to make you find yourself on the front pages of newspapers as a country that exports weapons to parts of the world where this is prohibited. I am glad that the group discovered, especially because it was discovered by our bodies. I must admit that, because of the policy of zero tolerance of weapons brokers, suffer through some brutal media attacks. Those who are unhappy because they can not directly manipulate the Ministry of Defence are interested in "Oblate" and the Ministry and myself, and actively working on it.
WE DO THE OUR BEST FOR KOSOVO
If KFOR takes action to remove barricades in the north, with no agreement with Belgrade, what Serbia can do
- The situation where we are right now everyone is hurting, and above all the citizens of northern Kosovo, among other things, because the Increase in price of consumer goods. I personally think that KFOR does not need to deal with such matters because he was not a mandate. On the other hand, Resolution 1244 and the Kumanovo Agreement provide that KFOR has to move freely throughout the territory of Kosovo, which they need and enable. But, not to emerge from its mandate. And in such a complex situation, I think that Serbia finally works best as possible, and this points to the fact that the opposition can not send any single viable criticism.
DS NOT YET IN ELECTION CAMPAIGN
DS election platform is announced for the end of this, the beginning of next year. What should I include?
- First, we have to draw the line, to sum up everything we have done and really I think in many fields made enormous progress. Also, you should say and what and why we did not do. More importantly, we need to formulate new policies for new times. I personally think that we need fundamental reforms in the areas of tax and pension policy, as well as in agriculture and energy, where we are far from the level at which we can be. But unlike other parties, we at DS is still not dealing with elections. The campaign will come when you call for elections, and now we are all focused on his state affairs.
