Vučić: By the end of the year - confirmation of the investment rating from two more agencies

"Thank you very much for coming to Serbia. We are honored that you visited our country and since I hosted Shinzo Abe five and a half years ago, I believe that we have successfully improved our relations and that it was the post of an exceptional visionary, I was honored to host him. After that, we did a lot of good work with that, including a lot of Japanese investments," said Vučić during his speech.

"When you come to forums of this type, you always only hear good words about a country, there are good things that we can brag about, and we finally achieved an investment rating. We will receive confirmation from two more companies - Fitch and Moody's, by the end of the year. When it comes to incentives, then we can compare ourselves with the best countries in Europe, but also in the wider region," he said.

He emphasized that Serbia's public debt in relation to GDP is 46.5 percent, which is actually half of the average public debt in relation to GDP in the EU.

"I hosted Shinzo Abe five and a half years ago, I believe that we successfully improved our relations and it was a visit of an extraordinary visionary and I was very honored to meet and host him in Serbia. Actually, after that we did a lot of good work, including a new Japanese investments in our country, from Nidek to Toyota Tires," said Vučić.

He mentioned that now we need to complete the desulphurization process in Obrenovac with the Mitsubishi company and other things with some other companies, when it comes to the energy sector and when it comes to the quality of Japanese equipment and a completely new project for the construction of the reversible hydroelectric power plant "Bistrica", which will be 100 percent in the hands of Japanese companies and the Japan International Cooperation Agency.

As he said, from the companies that will build it to those that will provide adequate equipment for our capacities and facilities.

"We are planning three new direct flights that we will start in the next six months, one of them is to Tokyo. The connection with Japan is one of the greatest importance for this country. We will try to establish this line in the next 6 months," he announced.

"We want you to feel at home and I believe that we are not a day late when it comes to our obligations when it comes to Japanese companies. Whatever you need, we will do our best to prove ourselves as a reliable partner. As for Expo, I would like to visit Osaka. We supported Osaka's candidacy. We have to literally change the country's appearance by 2027," said Vučić, who told the guests to feel at home.

More than 100 Japanese companies are participating in the forum, and the participants of the forum will be addressed by President Vučić, Ambassador of Japan to Serbia Akira Imamura and President of the Japan External Trade Organization JETRO, Susumu Kataoka.

Ministers Siniša Mali, Tomislav Momirović, Dubravka Djedovic Handanović attend the forum, as well as Jelena Begović, Irena Vujović, Goran Vesić, Dejan Ristic, Aleksandar Martinović, Adrijana Mesarović.

In the second part of the forum, which starts at 10:50 a.m., Prime Minister of Serbia Miloš Vucevic, President of the Chamber of Commerce of Serbia Marko Čadež, President of the Japanese Organization for Foreign Trade Susumu Kataoka and Director of the International Cooperation Sector of the Development Agency of Serbia Nikola Janković will speak, PKS announced.

After the introductory presentations, a panel discussion "Economic cooperation between Serbia and Japan: opportunities and challenges" and bilateral talks between businessmen will be held.

The economic delegation of Japan consists of 105 members representing Japanese companies from the sectors of information technology and digitization, energy and environmental protection, automotive and aviation industry, robotics, biotechnology, agrotechnology, tourism, trade, services and other fields.

Representatives of Japanese companies will be in Belgrade today and tomorrow, with the aim of directly exploring investment opportunities in Serbia, the Japanese Business Alliance in Serbia announced earlier.

It is a continuation of the talks started during the visit of the delegation of the Government of Serbia to Japan in June of this year and is the result of the intensification of economic cooperation between the two countries.