Ljubic: Energy to be crucial factor for investments in Serbia

BELGRADE - Competitiveness in the labor market, infrastructure as well as energy prices and stability of energy supplies are some of the factors bringing foreign investors to Serbia, Foreign Investors Council Executive Director Aleksandar Ljubic said on Tuesday, noting that energy would be the key factor in the future.

"Foreign investors like a predictable environment - that is what they are looking for, they want to be familiar with the market and to know how to act... Political stability is also what they expect," Ljubic told a Belgrade forum on the EU and Serbia.

For Serbia, there is no alternative to the EU, he added.

"Doing business with the EU and approximation with it is something that is much-needed in this country at this time for the sake of that stability," Ljubic said.

Speaking about Serbia's alignment with the EU foreign policy - which would also imply imposing sanctions on Russia - Henry Jackson Society researcher Helena Ivanov said a recent survey showed such a move would be unpopular in Serbia.

"The public opinion is very pro-Russian," she said, noting that 87.7 pct of survey participants would say no to sanctions against Russia even if imposing them would accelerate Serbia's EU accession.

She said 87.5 pct of respondents had said they would be against the sanctions even if the West were to pledge successive financial support, and that 74.3 pct would feel the same even if the West promised to stop pressuring Serbia to recognise Kosovo as independent.