Brnabic: We will work intensively on boosting economic ties with Ireland

DUBLIN - Serbian PM Ana Brnabic said on Thursday her meeting with the Republic of Ireland's PM Leo Varadkar in Dublin earlier in the day had addressed advancement of bilateral economic ties and that they had agreed to set up mechanisms of cooperation in development of the innovative economy and knowledge-sharing.

In a statement to Tanjug, Brnabic said the volume of Serbia-Ireland bilateral trade had grown by 32 pct last year, exceeding 500 mln euros, mostly thanks to the strength of Serbia's IT sector, as well as to the world-renowned IT and technology sector in the Republic of Ireland.

"We discussed ways to build our cooperation further on those foundations, and we agreed in principle to create a mechanism of cooperation in development of the innovative economy and knowledge-sharing. We decided to call that dialogue on the innovative economy," said Brnabic, who is on a two-day visit to Ireland.

"We really have a lot to learn from Ireland, but there are things Ireland can learn from us," Brnabic said.

She said she had also had a good meeting with Ireland's Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment Simon Coveney, a former FM who she noted was familiar with the situation in Serbia and the region.

"In addition to economic topics, he was also interested in the Belgrade-Pristina dialogue and the ever-inevitable topic of sanctions on the Russian Federation," Brnabic said.

"I explained our position and I would say that, due to its history, Ireland can understand our position slightly better than others in Europe," Brnabic said.

She added that she had had a useful meeting with representatives of Ireland's Investment Development Agency, an equivalent of the Development Agency of Serbia.

"They have set up Ireland's development agency, which deals only with attracting FDI, as well as an agency that deals only with support to domestic companies," Brnabic said.

In that way, they are creating an ecosystem we could emulate in Serbia in a way to see how our economy can grow even faster, she said.

"We are one of the world's leaders in attracting direct investments, which has not changed despite the challenging times and the crisis in Europe and worldwide," Brnabic said.

She also met with Jaguar Land Rover executive John Cormican and invited him to visit Serbia.

"I had an opportunity to present what Serbia has done to date in terms of research and development and use of artificial intelligence in the automotive industry," she said, noting that the possibility of the company opening a development centre in Serbia that would be similar to the one set up by Germany's Continental had also been discussed.

"We are far from that," she added, noting that it was good to have "an opportunity to present what we are doing."