Abu Dhabi: Trade relations between Serbia and the United Arab Emirates are growing with many companies investing in Serbia to start projects, the Serbian Business Council said.

Apart from investments by Etihad Airways in Air Serbia, there are numerous projects and agreements in the field of agriculture, defence industry, hi-tech sector and health-care sector.

Etihad in August acquired a 49 per cent equity stake in Air Serbia, formerly known as Jat Airways and pledged to invest $40 million (Dh147 million) with the purpose of developing a transportation hub in the region.

“Over the past few years, Serbia and the UAE developed a very close economic and political ties resulting in a number of bilateral agreements and investments,” said Mirjana Radenovic Ratkovic, general manager of Serbian Business Council.

“The crown jewel of this partnership has been the Belgrade Waterfront project, which will completely change the face of downtown area of Serbia’s capital Belgrade.”

Belgrade Waterfront is being developed by UAE based construction company Eagle Hills in a joint venture partnership with Serbian government. Eagle hills, headed by Mohamed Alabbar, chairman of Emaar properties would be spending $4.08 billion in the project.

“The colossal project will turn the right bank of the Sava River into a prestigious area with futuristic architectural designs like in Dubai, Doha or London and would be implemented over five to six stages,” said Ratkovic.

Another area of cooperation between both the countries is defence industry. The Emirates Advanced Research and Technology Holding (Earth), a subsidiary of Emirates Advanced Investments signed an agreement with the Serbian state owned defence company Yugoimport to jointly develop advanced light attack system cruise missiles. The contract is worth 200 million euros (Dh882 million).

In agriculture sector, Abu Dhabi Development Fund is investing in food production by taking over large arable field. Another firm Al Dahra has signed $400 million agreement to buy eight Serbian farm companies and develop them to grow and process food and fodder for export.

“By joint investments in the state owned farms, the effort will develop irrigation systems, machinery, agricultural infrastructure. In exchange, the Serbian government is guaranteeing a multi-annual food export to the UAE,” she said.

There is also cooperation between the two countries in hi-tech sector. Talks are also being held over semiconductor and microchip hardware production with a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed between both countries in 2013. Other potential investments might be seen in energy sector, in combined thermo electric and hydroelectric power plants as well as renewable energy.

“Today, Serbia has grown into one of the premier investment locations in Central and Easter Europe. A number of leading foreign companies like Fiat, Microsoft, Siemans, Gazprom, Coca-Cola and others have brought in $26 billion foreign direct investment since 2000,” she said.

In order to showcase investment opportunities, Serbian Business Council and Serbian Embassy will be organising a first Serbian Business and Investment Forum exhibition from January 25 to 31 in five different emirates including Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Ras Al Khaimah, Sharjah and Fujairah.

“The first bilateral business forum aims to promote trade ties between Serbia and the UAE and open the door to the Serbian market.”

The forum will deal in detail about the opportunities in the sectors of construction, renewable energy, oil and gas, heath and education.