19.11.2015.
Minister Gasic meets with directors of the defence industry and bank representatives
Defence Minister Bratislav Gasic and his associates met with the directors of companies of the defence industry of Serbia and representatives of Serbian and VTB Bank. The occasion for today's meeting was planned realization of new investments in companies of the defence industry of Serbia aimed at improving and increasing the production capacity of the factories.Today's meeting was an opportunity to exchange information with the heads of the defence industry on key and current activities of the Ministry of Defence in order to provide support to the defence industry.
The meeting discussed the first amounts of investments in the aforementioned factories and preparations for projects up to 2020, which will place the defence industry of Serbia in the line of largest special-purpose industries, in Europe and beyond.
- These projects will elevate our defence industry, when talking about complex combat systems, to a much higher level. Also, today we made certain decisions related to the sale of "Zastava Inpro" and for some of that money to be used for investments - Minister of Defence said. He added that the decision was made on the purchase of equipment for the factory "Zastava Arms", and that the factory of technological and metallurgical equipment "TMO" from Trstenik will become a part of the SDPR, as will be the case with "The Forge" in Mladenovac. He also pointed out that the factories have, so far, mainly regulated debts from previous periods.
Minister Gasic announced that several more factories will be introduced in the Serbian defence industry, singling out primarily Krusevac "Trayal", because the representatives of Belarus had expressed great interest in the production program of the factory.
Addressing the directors of defence industry, Minister Gasic asked for union representatives to no longer use pressures for something that had happened before 2012, since they should act in the function of benefit of workers, above all, and of the increase of production of higher quality products.
Talking about next moves, Defence Minister pointed out that some factories from the group, which have the necessary products, will get more than a billion dollars of advance payment from Serbian Armed Forces as soon as by the end of this month.
- We cannot do all that was destroyed during the previous 12 years in two or three years, but with joint work, and unity with workers, I believe we can help our country, its factories and the Serbian Armed Forces - Minister Gasic said, announcing that in December a large meeting will be held with 1300 young experts of various profiles that have responded to the invitation of the Ministry of Defence to get an opportunity to put their knowledge into the development of the domestic defence industry.
Later during the meeting, Acting Assistant Minister for Material Resources Nenad Miloradovic presented the attendees with the activities of the Sector for Material Resources in the restructuring and the proposed investment projects to increase the capacity of the defence industry.Commenting on the importance of the existence of the Serbian Bank for the defence industry, CEO of Vesna Jokanovic reminded that the cooperation between the bank and the defence system has lasted, with interruptions, for more than half a century. She also spoke about the Conclusion of the Government of Serbia on its restructuring, in accordance with the law and with the assistance of the Ministry of Defence, as well as the framework and modalities for future cooperation.
Directors of companies defence industry of Serbia also spoke with Minister of Defence about the progress of implementation of priority investment projects, and the needs for loan resources in the next two years.
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