06.04.2012.

Minister visits "Milan Blagojevic-namenska " defense factory

Defence Minister Dragan Sutanovac, Assistant Minister for Material Resources Ilija Pilipovic, head of the Defense Technologies Department, Brigadier General Dr. Bojan Zrnic, and his associates visited the company today, "Milan Blagojevic - Namenska" in Lucani. After talking with the factory management, the Minister toured the facilities for making combustible elements and the basic filling operation.

Stressing the importance of defense industry, Sutanovac said that this was one of the most vital industries of our country and that the factory is crucial for the defense industry of Serbia.

- Factories in Valjevo and Uzice directly depend on the components that are manufactured in the factory in Lucani. In the past, the plant has maintained its capacity, employing young professionals, and engineers who had not had employment for years in the region - said Sutanovac adding that in the past four years, production had increased by 70 percent and the salaries had doubled, which is still higher than the average salary in Serbia.

At this point, as the defense minister said, defense industry has 25 million USD worth of contracts, which is should be regarded as a trigger because the candidate status and the start of negotiations with the European Defence Agency would enable Serbian defense industry to return to world markets.

- I believe that Lucani would soon flourish, and the problems that exist will be successfully resolved at the Government’s sessions. I expect all debt-related problems would be solved this year and that they would start new jobs full steam ahead- the minister said, expressing satisfaction with the plan made 4 years ago, including employing new people and young people which contributed to the stabilization of the region.

According to the director of "Milan Blagojevic - Namenska" in Lucani Rados Milovanovic, the capacities have been fully engaged since 2007 and will continue to be so.

- Today's visit was an opportunity inform Minister Sutanovac of the work in the past year, which was extremely difficult, and we have presented him our plans for the future. The capacity of our factories in this and next year is to be fully employed, with factory working in full capacity on weekends as well- Director Milovanovic said, adding that they were ready to meet all requirements in terms of production and capacity.

Milovanovic also highlighted that after receiving the candidate status and the start of negotiations with our country's European Defence Agency has seen a rise in the demand for products. One proof of this is the recent visit of the company "General Dynamics" which has offices around the world, as well as of representatives of other major companies in the world market of defense technology.

The current situation is very favorable for our production - he said, expressing his thanks to the minister and Government for their support which wide possibilities to place our products on world markets.

The company "Milan Blagojevic-Namenska" AD - Lucani is part of the Serbian defense industry, and today is a renowned manufacturer of gunpowder and explosives manufacturer in the world. It operates as a closed joint stock company, which is 67.78 % state-owned and employs about 1,000 workers. Company-Milan Blagojevic Lucani exports to 26 countries and in Europe, Asia, North and South America. The award for product quality, as the strongest argument for good placement on the world market, confirmed by a certificate of quality management ISO 9001.

ANSWER TO REPORTERS’ QUESTIONS

Speaking about the capacity of the factory, Sutanovac said that it employs 1015 workers, of whom about 100 work required by the contract, of whom 90 are engineers. In addition, last year received 15 young engineers of various specialties in responsible positions in that company.

When it comes to exports, 2007 were more than 60 million dollars in exports, for previous two year the average of exports of 50 million dollars, which is almost 3,5 times more. Already this year we have contracted work to be realized in the amount of approximately 275 million dollars, and the total businesses which have been agreed for the next period are about $ 600 million - said the Minister indicating that the defense industry with over 10000 employees generates huge profits both for their company and through taxes for the budget.

He recalled that the defense industry factories were completely destroyed in 1999, and the factory in Lucani was a good example of that with good planning, management and investment problems can be solved and stablizied.