23.11.2015.

Minister Gasic visited "Prvi Partizan" in Uzice

Defence Minister Bratislav Gasic visited today with his associates the company “Prvi Partizan" JSC Uzice and opened two new lines for the automatic production of shells in the reconstructed hall "Shells".

Minister Gasic also attended the signing of four contracts for the needs of the Serbian Armed Forces. The Ministry of Defence has signed agreements with factories of defence industry "Milan Blagojevic" Lucani, Cacak "Sloboda" and Uzice "Prvi Partizan".

The factory in Uzice negotiated production and delivery for the Ministry of Defence of 1,693,800 5.56 mm bullets, which have recently been introduced in the arms and military equipment of the Serbian Armed Forces.

With "Milan Blagojevic", two contracts have been signed for the procurement of powder filling and fuel for the repair of artillery and rocket systems in TRZ "Kragujevac" with a value of 485 million dinars, and a contract on procurement of ammunition elements worth 18 million dinars was signed with "Sloboda" JSC Company Cacak.

Defence Minister said that, in the next few weeks, contracts with other factories of defence industry for additional 600 million dinars will also be signed.

- Today we put into operation two new lines for the automatic production of shells for additional 30 per cent increase in production capacity of “Prvi Partizan”. Since 2012, when it had total turnover of more than 3 billion dinars, to this date, this factory has recorded a growth of traffic and ends this year with more than 8 billion dinars of value of the total workload. The growth of the scope of amount of worth was followed by a rise in the average wage of workers in the “Prvi Partizan” - Minister Gasic said.

He said that opening of another factory in Dautovac is planned, which would round off the investment cycle of 33.2 million euros, and enable safer and more secure working conditions for the workers who work in underground parts of Uzice defence industry.

Gasic underlined that the defence industry has achieved significant results in the last three years.

Talking about the safety of the employees in these factories, Minister Gasic stressed that this is one of the priorities when it comes to the defence industry.

General Director of “Prvi Partizan” Dobrosav Andric said that the 5 million euros invested in the opened two production lines for automatic production of shells will be earned back in the next few years and agreed with Defence Minister on their importance for contribution to the future increase in the production capacity of Uzice defence industry factory.

Today's tour of the factory was also attended by Assistant Minister for Material Resources Dr Nenad Miloradovic and directors of defence industry, and on behalf of the Ministry of Defence the contracts were signed by Director of the Directorate for Procurement and Sales of the Supply Department of the Sector for Material Resources Col. Dr Aleksandar Bukvic.