Serbian Chamber of Commerce and Ministry of Trade, Tourism, and Telecommunication have given the awards to the most successful domestic commodity and corporative brands at the final ceremony of the action “The Best of Serbia 2017”.

PM Ana Brnabić has said that Serbian brands are our best ambassadors, and that the image of one brand can change the image of the entire country.

“It is my great pleasure that I am here with you tonight among the best and most reliable companies from Serbia, those who are successfully building their brands, and the confirmation to that is given by the users themselves”, says Ms Brnabić.

She has said that this year 24 brands received the rewards, and the brand profiles went from small farms to companies of thousands of employees.

“That demonstrates that Serbian economy in every single field, from the start-ups over tourism to energy, has the good quality brans”, says Ms Brnabić.

Starting of 2004, when the action “The Best of Serbia” was launched, PM has said that around 1850 brands have applied for that award, and around 340 brands got it.

“Serbian Government sets as a priority of creation of stimulating environment for operation and development of domestic companies and brands. A special focus is on developing small and medium-sized enterprises and entrepreneurship for which, through various support programmes in 2017, more than 18 billion dinars were allocated”, PM has underlined.

Speaking of Serbia as a good environment for business, the PM has stated the fact that in the first quarter of this year Serbia attracted more than 600 billion euros of direct foreign investment, which is by five per cent more than last year.

She also points out that Serbia has attracted 2.6 billion euros of direct foreign investment, by which it “reached a historic result”.

Deputy PM and Minister of Trade, Tourism, and Telecommunications Rasim Ljajić has stressed that apart from successful athletes, scientists and students, the action “The Best of Serbia” shows that companies from Serbia can also be a good brand of our country.

He points out that among 155 shortlisted companies for this award, there are those who have already created a brand and are respected by their consumers, but also those which have just started creating their brand.

“Tonight we are giving awards to both of them, and it is a very difficult task to do, whether to create a brand or keep it alive. To small companies this is an encouragement to go from the local to the national level, and for the big ones it is another confirmation of success”, says Mr Ljajić.

How important this award is for the small companies which are still creating their brands is shown by the data that in the world only one third of started business reach the fifth year of business.

He has pointed out that the key to brand is in the trust of the consumer and buyer, and the estimations are, as he has underlined, that in the next ten year, thanks to the modern technologies, the habits of customers change more than in the past 40 years”.

Minister expressed his belief that strong brands would contribute to a higher export and economic growth of the country.

President of SCC Marko Čadež has pointed out that for 13 years of “The Best of Serbia” has been a way to confirm the quality, test competitiveness, and give recognition to responsibility and efficiency, and open the door for new players on the market.

“Our “well done” more than ever deserves the entire business community of Serbia which, with its success, helped Serbian economy to deal with the loss and for the third consecutive year do profitable business, reduce the number of unemployed, increase the number of employed, double the net profit, strengthen the export…” says Mr Čadež.

The awards in the category of commodity brand got “Bankina tajna ajvar”, Nectar Family”, “Merix”, “P.S. fashion”, “Gorenje aparati za domaćinstvo”.

The awards in the category of best service companies are given to the “Nikola Tesla” Airport, received by the Acting Director of the Airport Saša Vlaisavljević.

Those who received the corporative brands awards are Babmi, Nektar, “Aura kozmetika”, NIS, “Alfa Palm” and “Energy Net”.

The best touristic manifestation for the promotion of Serbia is Tamburitza fest, the best hotel in Serbia is the “Grand Hotel & Spa”, and the best “small” touristic accommodation is Ethno complex Vrdnička Tower.