“Machines and Equipment for the Wood and Woodworking Industry in Serbia” is the Conference title held within the Furniture Fair Professional Side Event Program. At the Conference, organized by the members of the German-Serbian Business Association, it was concluded Serbia accomplished the annual sufficite of almost 200 million US Dollars from the woodworking industry, which was a certain proof the wood was an important product of Serbian economy and a great potential of the local economics.
After these data, presented at the beginning of this professional meeting by Mr. Martin Knapp, the Executive Director of the German-Serbian Business Association, Mr. Branko Glavonjić, Professor at the Faculty of Forestry in Belgrade, also spoke about the situation of the woodworking industry in Serbia. He mentioned creation of the new national strategy of Serbian woodworking industry development:
– We attempt to let Serbia become recognizable for wooden products with the high added value. Beside the technological modernization of the companies, we expect in the following five years the expansion of this section of economy. By 2022, the woodworking industry should accomplish the export of 700 million US Dollars, said Mr. Glavonjić.
Many important data were presented at the Conference: there are 23 thousand employees currently in the Serbian woodworking industrial sector, which is less than 20 years ago, when this sector employed 37 thousand employees. In addition to this, in the furniture production and woodworking industry in Serbia, 95 percent of the participants are micro and macro companies and the remaining five percent are medium sized ones.
Mr. Ulrich Wild, Consultant of the Export Initiative Program of Ministry of Economy and Energy of the Federal Republic of Germany, said he was extremely satisfied that German companies were present at Belgrade Furniture Fair, that they featured their new technologies and managed to initiate possible cooperation with Serbian companies.
