Serbian President Mr Boris Tadic met chairman of the board of directors at Danieli company Mr Gianpietro Benedetti in Italy to talk about setting up a factory that would produce special steel products in Serbia.

As the officials of the Udine based company underline, the investment would create more than 2,000 jobs, and secure considerable revenues for Serbia as its production would be export oriented.

Following the meeting with Mr Benedetti, Mr Tadic told Tanjug that he could not pledge that an agreement with Danieli would be realized as the entire Europe is faced with the crisis.

Mr Benedetti said in a statement for Tanjug that at this moment certain ambiguous points are being clarified so as to create conditions for completion of a feasibility study.

He added that this company would manufacture 1 million tonnes of special steel products for foreign markets, mostly in Europe. The investment would be worth EUR 500 to EUR 550 million, and would create around 1,000 jobs, but it would indirectly hire another 1,000 to 1,500 people outside the factory.

According to Mr Benedetti, the talks with the Serbian side open up numerous opportunities, but it is too early to say whether an agreement will be reached.

Mr Benedetti did not specify which location the company is considering in Serbia, but said that he had talks with the Sabac mayor on opening a new factory.

Danieli is one of three world's largest producers of equipment and production lines for the steel and iron industry. The company, which hires 8,500 workers, has 6 production plants in Italy, Germany, France, Sweden, Thailand and China, and achieved a turnover of EUR 2.58 billion in 2010.

(Sourced from www.emg.rs)