22.12.2014.

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Minister of Defence Bratislav Gasic and Head of the General Staff of Serbia General Ljubisa Dikovic and associates visited today the “Prvi Partizan” company in Uzice.

After the meeting with managers of “Prvi Partizan”, Minister Gasic and General Dikovic ceremonially opened the reconstructed hall for shell production.

According to Minister Gasic, after minor “tensions” at “Prvi Partizan” in the past period related to the election of the general director and completely new management of the company, today, he had the opportunity to open the new production sector on 10 thousand square meters, in which the factory invested over 3.7 million euros.

- We expect that a new machinery from Switzerland worth 4.5 million euros will arrive at this sector as soon as in the first third of the next year, which also an investment of “Prvi Partizan”. This will round off the process that begun two years ago, which is to exit the underground part of “Prvi

Partizan” and to get far better conditions for work and for employees – Minister Gasic stressed, adding that a plan had also been made for “Tresnjica” facility to be finished in the next two years as well, which will also have much better working conditions.

As Minister of Defence stressed, “Prvi Partizan” is reaching the number of 30 million euros, which is a significant increase in relation to 2012 and the years before. Minister also conveyed his content for having 300 new employees as well.

- During the talks with the management, we have agreed that there should no longer be a third of the permanently employed, a third of the temporarily employed and a third on occasional temporary tasks, but that, as soon as in the beginning of the next year, “Prvi Partizan” should have 1100 permanently employed workers that will be admitted to permanent employment from temporary tasks because the factory can handle that – Minister Gasic stated, stressing that, in the next period, “Serbian Bank” will only be the bank of the seven factories of the special purpose industry of Serbia.

When asked to comment on the events in the factory “Zastava Arms”, Minister Gasic said that this is the factory in greatest tax debt to the Republic of Serbia and that those debts have multiply exceeded their total capital value. With that in mind, Minister Gasic stated, for the employees and because it is necessary that the factory should be revitalized, an adequate manager must be found.

The new factory sector for shell production is located in two reconstructed halls and 12.7 mm shells are produced there. The activation of this sector enabled for a part of the underground object to be relocated, which created better working conditions and increased security of employees, and business costs are reduced by around 7 million dinars per month.

During today’s visit, Minister Gasic and the delegation of the Ministry of Defence and the Armed Forces of Serbia also visited the pellet production hall that started working on November 22, 2013. The object of 3600 square meters was built with loan means of the Development Fund of the Republic of Serbia. The investment included the construction of the hall and accompanying infrastructure objects. Total value of the investment was around 2 million euros.