Serbia hopes to set up "Diaspora bank"

A diaspora bank would allow for directing money transfers to Serbia, which average an annual EUR 2.5 billion, into investments rather than personal spending.

Izvor: Tanjug

Wednesday, 05.02.2014.

14:51

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Serbia hopes to set up "Diaspora bank"

The project for establishing the bank is complete, Aleksandar Vlajković, the deputy head of the Government Office for Cooperation with the Diaspora and Serbs in the Region said at the Chamber of Commerce of Belgrade.

He added that National Bank of Serbia (NBS) officials have been involved in the project, which is expected to be discussed by the NBS Council of the Governor.

The initiative for establishing the bank has come from the Serbian diaspora, which wants to invest in Serbia.

"We have had individual initiatives from people who wanted to establish such a bank, but we believe that the bank needs to have several founders and a large number of shareholders, and that it should also be run by people from the diaspora", Vlajković said.

In addition to money transfers, the bank would be dealing with investments and would also encourage the development of small and medium-sized enterprises, he said.

Vlajković said that institutional support is expected from the state, which should provide guarantees for the bank.

Milan Vujović, the project leader and member of the Economic Committee of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts, said that members of the diaspora sent USD 5 billion to Serbia last year, which is 15 percent of the national GDP.

Over the past ten years, the influx has amounted to USD 750 per capita, making Serbia the fifth highest-ranked nation in terms of money transfers from the diaspora, Vujović said.

"However, just one percent of the money has been directed into investments which resulted in the creation of 20,000 jobs and, for that reason, an economic environment must be established that will allow greater use of those funds," Vujović said.

An estimated four million Serbians live abroad, including 30,000 highly educated people, Vujović said.

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