An online conference on the topic “Perspectives of Vojvodina’s economy after the COVID-19 pandemic”, organized by the Chamber of Commerce of Vojvodina (PKV) and the company Color Media Communication, was officially opened by the Speaker of the Parliament of the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina, Istvan Pasztor.
The aim of the conference was for the countries in the region to share their experiences and to assess the real consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic, as well as to initiate implementation of further sustainable measures to overcome negative economic and all other consequences for our economy and society.
Opening the conference, Mr Pasztor referred to the statistical data on the economy of Vojvodina in the first four months of the current year.
“In the period from January to April this year, industrial production in Serbia decreased by only 0.8 per cent, while in Vojvodina, it increased by 7.5 per cent at the same time. The total value of Vojvodina’s external trade is 1.4 per cent lower compared to the same period last year, “said Mr Pasztor.
In his address, the president of PKV, Boško Vučurević, said that the conference was the first one in a series of online conferences organized by PKV after the pandemic and the first combined conference opened at PKV’s premises. He also mentioned the unrealized activities of the PKV, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. “In the past three months, due to the new situation, the Chamber of Commerce of Vojvodina missed out on over 40 planned and agreed business delegations, B2B meetings, trade fairs and other events with the representatives of business institutions in over 15 regions and countries, in which a total of over 1,000 businesses were supposed to participate,” he said.
CEO of Color Press Group, Robert Čoban, also addressed the conference: “The fact is that the line institutions in Vojvodina fully demonstrated the scope of their responsibility in late January and early February, which supports the fact that Vojvodina acted responsibly and conscientiously in the fight against the coronavirus. It is no coincidence that there were no residents of nursing homes in Vojvodina that contracted the disease. Why am I saying all this now? Because that way of how everything functioned, the connections and the cooperation between the Red Cross, us, as a private company, the City of Novi Sad and the Provincial Government, proved to be an excellent model for the whole society. I am sure that, in the times to come, i.e. during the recovery period, cooperation will prove to be an excellent example of how things should function, “said Mr Čoban at the opening of the conference.
A total of 120 people directly participated in the live stream of the conference, while ambassadors and representatives of embassies in the Republic of Serbia (from the Republic of Romania, the Czech Republic, the Kingdom of Morocco, the Arab Republic of Egypt and the Republic of Tunisia), as well as presidents and chambers of commerce from Val-d’Oise, Paris-France, Szeged-Hungary, Ostrava-the Czech Republic, Banja Luka-the Republic of Srpska and Thessaloniki-Greece, addressed the conference via a video link.