Air Serbia to start flying to Tokyo in next six months – Serbia expects arrival of more investors from Japan

The president of Serbia, Aleksandar Vucic, said today that Japanese companies participated in very important projects and jobs in Serbia and the arrival of even higher number of investors from that country was expected.

– I am honored that Serbia has been visited by the biggest delegation from Japan so far, in which there are more than 100 business people – Vucic said at the Serbia-Japan Business Forum, following the meeting with the Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO) at the Palace of Serbia.

He said that the trade between Serbia and Japan was lower than EUR 340 million a year, but that he hoped that it would be increased.

– With a greater Japanese presence, the sky’s the limit – Vucic pointed out and added that the plan was for Air Serbia to introduce direct Belgrade-Tokyo flights in the next six months.

The president of Jetro, Susumu Kataoka, said that Serbia was very important for Japanese companies.

– The advantages of Serbia are in the extraordinary IT sector, human resources and low labor force costs – he said.

The ambassador of Japan to Serbia, Akira Imamura, said that the government of his country supported the arrival of Japanese companies to Serbia and their operations in that market.

In the business delegation of Japan, there are over 100 representatives of companies from the sector of information technologies and digitization, energy and environmental protection, automotive and aviation industries, robotics, biotechnology, agri-technology, tourism, commerce, services and other fields.

The Japanese business people arrived by the first direct charter flight of Air Serbia from Tokyo to Belgrade, where they will also stay tomorrow, and the aim of the visit is to look into the investment possibilities.

The talks with the Serbian business people had been agreed during the visit of the delegation of the Government of Serbia to Japan in June this year.

According to the data of the National Bank of Serbia, the investments of Japanese investors in Serbia amounted to EUR 473.4 million between 2010 and 2023.

The external trade of Serbia with Japan in the first half of this year amounted to USD 160.1 million, whereby the exports from Serbia amounted to USD 35.4 million, and goods worth USD 124.7 million were imported.

In 2023, the trade between the two countries amounted to USD 332 million, of which the exports were worth USD 89.1 million, whereas the imports from Japan amounted to USD 242.9 million. According to the Serbian Business Registers Agency, 17 companies whose majority owners are Japanese nationals or legal entities registered in Japan are registered in Serbia.

The Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Serbia also organized the Business Forum and B2B meetings between Serbian and Japanese business people in October 2022.

Predsedništvo Republike Srbije

Air Serbia ad Beograd

Ambasada Japana Beograd

Agencija za privredne registre Beograd

Privredna komora Srbije

president of Serbia

Air Serbia

Jetro

Embassy of Japan to Serbia

Serbian Business Registers Agency

Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Serbia

Akira Imamura

Aleksandar Vučić

Susumu Kataoka

Serbia Japan Business Forum

Japanese investors