Mali meets with KfW director

BELGRADE - Serbian First Deputy PM and Finance Minister Sinisa Mali met with Klaus Muller, director for southeast Europe and Turkey of the German development bank KfW, to discuss current KfW-backed projects in Serbia and plans for carrying out new projects.

The meeting was also attended by German Ambassador to Belgrade Anke Konrad.

Mali thanked KfW representatives for the cooperation to date and noted that the financial institution supported a large number of projects in Serbia that improved the citizens' quality of life and contributed to the entire economy, the Finance Ministry said in a statement.

Above all, those are energy and environmental protection projects that are crucial for Serbia's further development, Mali said.

The parties agreed cooperation on current projects was successful and KfW representatives thanked a Ministry of Finance/Public Debt Administration team for its quality cooperation.

Future projects include launching by end-2025 a 135 mln euro Phase 2 of a reform progamme related to a green growth development policy and Phases 2 and 3 of a programme aimed at integrated solid waste management, worth up to 65 mln euros.

Konrad noted that Germany wanted to "see Serbia in the EU as soon as possible," and Mali noted that Serbia was fully committed to cooperation with the EU and working actively on implementing the reform agenda.