photo: Siemens Mobility /The President of Serbia, Aleksandar Vučić: Together with Siemens Kragujevac will become a railway vehicles production center in Europe
On July 22nd, Serbian President Alexander Vucic and his associates visited the Siemens Mobility plant near Kragujevac and said the German company had a clear determination to turn Kragujevac into a future railway hub for train production in Europe. In addition to numerous high-ranking guests, the visit was attended by the Minister of Construction, Transport and Infrastructure Tomislav Momirović, the Mayor of Kragujevac and the Deputy Mayor of Belgrade Goran Vesić and representatives of Siemens and the German Embassy."Siemens is great, and we will have other factories in Serbia that will produce trams and trains," Vucic said during the tour. He says that the Germans are very satisfied with the workforce in Šumadija and that is why they are investing especially in the Technical School and the University of Kragujevac, within the framework of dual education. "We must further strengthen dual education in Serbia," the president added.
German companies employ more than 70.000 people in Serbia, he said. He learned on that occasion that in Siemens in Kragujevac, the average monthly salary of a welder is 70,.000 dinars and commented that it is better than the average salary.
The president announced that 1.4km of modern test lines would be built on the site next to the factory in Kragujevac to meet Siemens' needs for research and development and testing of railway vehicles, which will cost more than € 20mln.
He added that the Siemens research center will also be located there.
"We will also build a new railway connection to connect the Siemens factory and Mind Park: Sobovica - Lužnice - Mind Park - Batočina, with a length of 16 kilometers, which is an additional € 18mln" Vucic said.
Siemens has 894 employees who produce rail vehicles, and at the end of last year, the first tram intended for the German market came off the production lines.
The first tram produced in the Siemens Mobility factory in Kragujevac, 37 meters long, was shipped to Bremen on December 14. The company still has a lot of orders for trams that will transport passengers in the cities of Germany.