Ruiz: Serbia is Spain's main external trade partner in W. Balkans

BELGRADE - Serbia is Spain's main external trade partner in the Western Balkans and accounts for over half of the trade volume between Spain and the region, Jose Maria Blasco Ruiz, head of the Infrastructure, Health and ICT Division of the Spanish exports and investment agency ICEX, told Tanjug on Monday.

In collaboration with the commercial department of the Spanish embassy in Belgrade, the agency is hosting a two-day business forum titled Western Balkans-Spain Multilateral Opportunities Days at the city's Hyatt Regency hotel.

"Forty-seven percent of Spain's imports come from Serbia and 58 pct of Spanish exports to the Western Balkans end up in Serbia. Last year, our trade exceeded one billion euros for the first time, and that is 113 pct more compared to 2019," Ruiz said.

"Events such as these represent pillars of future cooperation and a follow-up to everything that has been done in the past years to advance and upgrade the exceptional and friendly political relations between the two countries in the economic sense as well," Ruiz noted.