Federal Minister for Economic Affairs and Energy Peter Altmaier

Federal Minister for Economic Affairs and Energy Peter Altmaier

© BMWi/Susanne Eriksson

Federal Minister for Economic Affairs Peter Altmaier and Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić today held a conference via video link, at which they agreed to forge an administrative partnership between the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy and the Serbian Presidential Office. The aim of this partnership is to promote fields of mutual cooperation, such as strengthening supply chains and the further integration of Serbia into the European single market, as well as sustainable investment in forward-looking sectors and deeper cooperation in pursuing the goals of the European Green Deal.

Federal Minister Altmaier said: "The administrative partnership we have agreed today is another important step in the Berlin Process. We are working together to build sustainable structures for our economic cooperation, because these are more important than ever, especially in the coronavirus crisis".

Serbia's economy is an important driver of the regional economic area of the Western Balkans. German-Serbian economic relations developed dynamically before the global economic impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. In the six years preceding the crisis, bilateral trade doubled and, in 2019, reached a new record high of over 5 billion euros. German companies have invested more than 2.53 billion euros in recent years, making them one of the leading investors in Serbia.

The administrative partnership is another important instrument being operated alongside other initiatives by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy to support the Western Balkans within the scope of the Berlin Process. These include bilateral administrative partnerships between the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Kosovo, Montenegro and North Macedonia as well as supra-regional initiatives such as the Western Balkans Purchasing Initiative, the Western Balkans Digital Summit and the Dual Vocational Training Initiative, which are implemented in close cooperation with the network of German Chambers of Industry and Commerce (DIHK) and the Committee on Eastern Europe.

The administrative partnerships of the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy pursue the goal of improving the economic policy environment by modernising administrative processes in foreign partner authorities that are relevant to business and industry. To this end, German officials are seconded to partner authorities for short-term or extended consultancy assignments, where they feed in their know-how and experience.