Drinks can maker Ball Corporation has abandoned plans to build a E75m drinks can factory in Romania, deciding to focus its investment plans on Serbia instead.

Jan Driessens, chairman of Ball’s European operations, said the company had been assessing the regional market for almost three years. In the end, the decision to switch from Romania to Serbia was based largely on the superior work ethic of Serbian workers, Mr Driessens told fDI.

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Logistical advantages, and the country’s familiarity with the euro and the German language also played a part in the decision.

“Serbia is very well positioned geographically at the crossroads between Budapest and Athens, and east-west between Sofia and Zagreb. The country is at a major crossroad of highways and the river Danube offers access to the Black Sea, Ukraine and Russia. With Serbia as its centre, we will have a regional market of 60-70 million people,” said Mr Driessens.

Ball Corporation’s decision to invest in Serbia may also have been influenced by the growing interest from multinational breweries and soft drinks companies in Serbia. Coca-Cola Hellenic Bottling Company is rumoured to be considering an investment in Belgrade.

The final decision came following encouragement from Serbia’s premier, Zoran Djindjic. After a meeting with Mr Djindjic in January to discuss the price of land and tax incentives, Ball confirmed that it would invest E75m in a greenfield investment outside Belgrade.

It will be the first large US investment in Serbia and has been welcomed by government officials.

Announcing the investment, Serbia’s foreign economic relations minister, Goran Pitic, said: “This will be the largest single greenfield investment in Serbia in the past three years.”

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