Serbia says border closures are hitting economy

(MENAFN- The Journal Of Turkish Weekly) Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic said the closure of international borders due to the refugee crisis was damaging Serbia's economy.

On Saturday after Hungary and Croatia closed a number of border crossings with Serbia to stop the refugees Vucic said Serbia would weigh the economic impact during the next seven days.

To resolve the issue Vucic on Saturday said he had urged the Hungarian Prime Minister Victor Orban to open the Belgrade-Budapest highway for traffic and that he hoped that Croatia would open its borders with Serbia.

“We will continue to treat the refugees the same way we did. We were trying to find ways to open all the roads in order to help our economy develop” the Prime Minister said.

On Friday the transport of goods from Serbia was possible only at two border crossings at Kelebija with Hungary and Batrovci with Croatia.

Mahmud Busatlija a Belgrade-based economist told BIRN that Serbia could face damage if the borders are closed for a longer period.

“Serbia is a transit country and some trucks will now try to go through Romania and Bulgaria if the borders with Croatia and Hungary remain closed” he said.

“We need to be recognized as a safe country for foreign investments" he said. "With closed borders and a refugee crisis we will not be able to attract foreign companies to open facilities” he added.

Dusan Nikolic from the International Transport association on Sunday said some of their drivers were waiting for 30 hours at the borders.

Serbia could suffer most damage when it comes to the export of agricultural products he suggested.

“Those are the products that Serbia exports most such as apples. We ordinarily drive the apples to Austria and Germany and they are not driven in temperature-controlled trucks so they could rotten” Serbia's Tanjug news agency quoted Nikolic as saying.

He noted that even new cars from the largest exporter from Serbia have to be transported through the border to Croatia.

Bojan Djuric from the Serbian Chamber of commerce said the potential damage for Serbia could be up to 21 million euros daily.

“It is hard to measure the damage. In normal circumstances we have goods transported through Batrovci and Kelebija worth some 21 million euros a day” Djuric told Tanjug.

Hungary and Croatia closed most border crossings with Serbia in order to prevent a large number of refugees from entering their countries through Serbia.

Around 150000 refugees crossed Serbia in 2015 in order to reach EU member states. Most of them travelled through Hungary.

On Sunday the Horgos 1 crossing closed on September 17 was reopened by Serbian and Hungarian interior ministers Nebojsa Stefanovic and Sandor Pinter. The two ministers removed the barricade together.

“The reopening of the crossing is the proof that Serbia and Hungary as responsible states can manage this crisis properly" Stefanovic said.

However seven of the eight border crossings between Serbia and Croatia remained closed on Sunday.

Aleksandar Vulin the Serbian Minister of Labour visited the Batrovci crossing the only open crossing with croatia and said Serbia was suffering economic losses because of Croatia's decision.

“We must protect our economic interests and we have to ask... for compensation for the losses” Vulin said on Saturday.

“Does any country has a right to protect its interests by striking at the interests of another state?” he asked.

By Igor Jovanovic