- Title: SERBIA: Croatia Serbs to get own development bank
- Date: 25th June 2010
- Summary: NOVI SAD, SERBIA (JUNE 24, 2010) (REUTERS) SQUARE IN NOVI SAD CITY CENTRE MONUMENT PEOPLE WALKING PIGEONS EXTERIOR OF VOJVODINA GOVERNMENT BUILDING HEAD OF THE SERB NATIONAL COUNCIL, MILORAD PUPOVAC, AND HEAD OF VOJVODINA PROVINCIAL GOVERNMENT, BOJAN PAJTIC, SHAKING HANDS VARIOUS OF SIGNING CEREMONY, PUPOVAC AND PAJTIC SIGNING DOCUMENTS, SHAKING HANDS, EXCHANGING DOCUMENTS INVESTORS TALKING (SOUNDBITE) (Serbian) HEAD OF VOJVODINA PROVINCIAL GOVERNMENT, BOJAN PAJTIC, SAYING: "With this day, conditions have been created for the founding of a Serb bank in Croatia, or the Tesla Bank which will give an opportunity to Serbs who live in Croatia, who want to stay in Croatia, who want to return, to start their businesses in agriculture, to start small and medium enterprises. Hence, that bank will be a starter for preconditions for the Serbs in Croatia to stay and persevere. The province of Vojvodina, thanks to Mr Pupovac, to be more precise, Vojvodina's Development Fund, will be the bank's first shareholder." INVESTORS GETTING UP FROM THEIR SEATS (SOUNDBITE) (Croatian) HEAD OF THE SERB NATIONAL COUNCIL, MILORAD PUPOVAC, SAYING: "The Tesla Bank will not operate like a typical bank. It will not act like a typical commercial bank. It will be a development bank which will not make money on people, the money they don't have. It will rather try to create people capable of making money together with the bank." VARIOUS OF PUPOVAC TALKING TO INVESTORS
- Embargoed: 10th July 2010 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Serbia
- Country: Serbia
- Topics: Domestic Politics
- Reuters ID: LVA6YVIP22RZ8AD531NE475W2H41
- Story Text: The Serbia-based Tesla Bank is to provide lending to the Serbian minority in Croatia.
A signing ceremony to finalise the agreement was held in Vojvodina's provincial capital Novi Sad, 80 kilometres north of Belgrade, on Thursday (June 24).
This is the first such move after Belgrade-based banks in 1991 pulled out from other former Yugoslav republics, except Montenegro, following the outbreak of the Balkan wars.
The Head of the Vojvodina's provincial government, Bojan Pajtic, said the bank would help Serbs to live in Croatia.
"With this day, conditions have been created for the founding of a Serb bank in Croatia, or the Tesla Bank which will give an opportunity to Serbs who live in Croatia, who want to stay in Croatia, who want to return, to start their businesses in agriculture, to start small and medium enterprises. Hence, that bank will be a starter for preconditions for the Serbs in Croatia to stay and persevere. The province of Vojvodina, thanks to Mr Pupovac, to be more precise, Vojvodina's Development Fund, will be the bank's first shareholder," he said after the signing ceremony.
Vojvodina's own development fund will invest 1.5 million euros (1.8 million USD) or 10 percent stake in the Tesla development bank as part of its start-up capital.
The bank will also be co-founded by a development fund comprised of Croatian Serb business people and the Zagreb-based Serbian National Council, a political, consulting and human rights body.
Milorad Pupovac, the head of the Serb National Council, said the bank will help former refugees who returned to largely agricultural areas which are still recovering from the war in the 1990s to secure markets for their products and better jobs.
"The Tesla Bank will not operate like a typical bank. It will not act like a typical commercial bank. It will be a development bank which will not make money on people, the money they don't have. It will rather try to create people capable of making money together with the bank," he said.
During the final Croatian offensive to liberate its territory in 1995, a large number of ethnic Serbs fled Croatia but many have since returned to their homes. Money will be lent to Serbian returnees under favourable conditions to allow them to build a better life. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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