Vucic: NBS considering including yuan in its FX reserves

BEIJING - Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said in Beijing on Wednesday the National Bank of Serbia (NBS) was considering including the Chinese yuan in its FX reserves.

Addressing the first session of a Belt and Road Forum, Vucic noted China was Serbia's second-largest external trade partner and that the bilateral trade volume with China had increased by 185 times over the past decade.

"Since January 2015, the Chinese yuan has been on our list of currencies for the international market and the NBS is considering including the Chinese currency in its FX reserves," Vucic said, noting that Serbia and China were seeing an increase in cooperation in the finance and banking sectors.

Vucic also said Zijin Mining had been Serbia's top exporter in the past five years, making Serbia Europe's second-largest copper exporter.

He said information and communication technologies were Serbia's top export sector.

"We rank 46th in terms of IT products. We want to join partners when it comes to artificial intelligence," Vucic said.

"We have established an institute for AI as a national AI platform. We are building the BIO4 campus, which will be one of Europe's key biotech hubs," Vucic said.

He also said the Belt and Road initiative was evolving into a global project of impressive proportions that was based on infrastructure ties on land, at sea, in the air and in cyberspace, through commercial, financial and technological investments and virtual connectivity, connecting people through culture, tourism, education and science.