The Potential of The Skele Business Zone Presented to Brods Businessmen Currently Doing Business Abroad
An excellent location, simple procedure for issuing consents and documents, favorable land prices, building permits and utility fees, and a low tax rate, are just some of the benefits of the Skele Business Zone, it was announced at a meeting held tonight by the Mayor of Brod, Milan Zečević, with Brod businessmen doing business abroad.
Zečević presented in detail all the benefits that investors who decide to move their plants or parts of their production plants to Brod can enjoy, and judging by the comments, a good portion of those present tonight supported this initiative.
Slaviša Vrach, a resident of Brod, owner of the company “VsV”, which operates in Germany and Croatia and is engaged in metal production, welcomed the idea of first offering this land to our businessmen who are engaged in any type of business outside the borders of our municipality and Bosnia and Herzegovina.
“First of all, I would like to thank the mayor and his office for such a good and high-quality gathering. Just as I advised the mayor last year in a conversation that it is very important for our city to convene the guys who are already out there, who are ready to invest something, just like I am in this city and we all like to come to this city, and we need, as the mayor said, to change the consciousness of those people a little, so that people get out of the comfort zone that Brod is currently in and the chances are good with a mayor like this that we will move forward, for sure,” said Vrač and added:
“Our plan is to come here and expand here, where we started from.”
The potential that Brod has due to its geographical location, but also numerous other advantages, was recognized six years ago by Mika Zečević, owner of the company “DM Montaža”.
“Our Brod is in an ideal place for doing business. The European Union is our pedal, the highway, the railways and everything else. I do business abroad that we plan to bring here, and, first of all, Brod is in such a place that everything is very simple. We are in an ideal place, even better than across the Sava, in the European Union,” he said and added:
“We have extremely good conditions, primarily tax conditions, labor force, and, ultimately, the profit that is made, the profit tax is 10 percent, which I think is not found anywhere in the world, and certainly not in Europe.
Mika Zečević emphasized that very hardworking people live and work in these areas, and that this is also the potential for successful business in Brod.
“The labor force is scarce in some places, like ours, and I believe that with good investments, good organization and decent payment to workers, it can be very well realized and here, that there is no need for abroad. That is one of my goals – to stay here, for my children to stay here and to try to bring back as many people as possible who went abroad to earn a living,” he said.
The Mayor of the Municipality of Brod, Milan Zečević, thanked everyone who responded to the invitation and emphasized that every suggestion from people involved in any type of business is valuable.
“I would like to take this opportunity to thank all the businessmen who took the time and to thank them for an extensive discussion, and what makes me especially happy is that we always have something new to learn from smart, enterprising and innovative people, which was certainly the case tonight,” Zečević emphasized.
He explained that intensive work has begun on resolving the decades-old problem of property and legal relations, and that Brod finally has something concrete to offer future investors.
“Brod has always suffered from unresolved property and legal relations, and I would like to thank my associates and employees of RUGIP, or our cadastre, who managed to finally legally harmonize the Skele Business Zone in record time, so that less than two months ago we received a complete product, we received nearly 200 thousand square meters of first-class business land 300 meters from the border crossing with all possible predispositions and advantages that can benefit and are needed by an entrepreneur,” said the mayor.
Zečević emphasized that it was very important to offer the plots in the “Skele” Business Zone first to Brod residents working abroad, and then to other potential investors.
“The idea was to throw the first pebble into the water and create the first concentric circle of interested people. These are our Brod entrepreneurs, and I would also like to thank some foreign investors who came to listen, ask questions and consider what we should do in the coming period,” he said.
The Mayor of Brod said that “only the creation of new value can improve the entire living climate in Brod, not just the business climate.”
“We want to offer every investor a first-class location on very favorable terms, and with the fulfillment of certain conditions, the land can be transferred without compensation. In addition, there is the possibility of deferred payment, there is also the possibility of various subsidies, and as a good incentive from the municipality, we will bring all the necessary infrastructure, asphalt, electricity, water, sewage and everything else that is needed to every business entity to the very gate of the company,” emphasized Zečević.
Tonight’s meeting was attended by about thirty businessmen, as well as the president and some members of the Commercial Council of the Municipality of Brod.
Their questions were answered by the head of the Department for Economy and Social Activities, Draženka Duronja, and the head of the Department for Spatial Planning and Property and Legal Affairs, Sanela Latinović, in addition to the head of the municipality.
