Mr. Petrovic, what is your experience of the revival of The Belgrade Trade Fair after the sanctions?
I was appointed as head of The Belgrade Fair by the end of the February this year and my main task is to organize the schedule of the fair happenings and meetings in the best possible way, because during the previous years its reputation was ruined. What I did first was the establishment of a completely new organization and to surround myself with new professional people that would help me to complete my tasks. We have 34 exhibitions yearly, but because of the previous situation, we had a lot of cancellations. What we needed was to regain the trust of the people, and to make them understand that there is nothing to be afraid of. So far we have managed to do it. And it is not just my personal opinion: the statistics show that the number of visitors increased about 70-80%. The number of exhibitors has also increased by 20-30%, and with that the income of the fair has increased by 75-80%. It is especially interesting to mention that we have increased the number of foreign participants, which shows the interest of foreign participants for Belgrade, the Yugoslav market and the Fair, of course. This would not have happened if it were not stimulated by the politics of the country. For example, we used the occasion of the visit of the president of Bavaria in March, who was a guest of Mr. Djindjic, and we signed a contract with The Munich Fair, that enabled further connections with The Frankfurt Fair, Hamburg Fair, Fair of Bologna, the Fair of Turkey, the Russian Fair, etc. It gave a significant boost to the Fairs' development. At the same time we worked on the improvement of the infrastructure of The Fair.
I know that there are some interesting projects regarding the organization and expansion of the Fair trade ground. Could you elaborate on that and tell us about the plans?
Let me at first tell you more about what we have done in the past. We modernized the infrastructure, roads, parking places and heating system of the halls. We have also significantly improved the sanitary and esthetic conditions. We have started two projects that were planned by The University of Belgrade. The improvement of the information systems of The Fair to The Engineering Faculty of Belgrade. The main purpose of it is to provide people both with local and international information, we also plan to provide our costumers with laptops or computers. A modern, up to date information system is our primary objective.
Another project that is done by The Mechanical Engineering Faculty of Belgrade, is concerning the heating and air-conditioning, because at the present, all we have is heating in the winter and we do not have air-conditioning during the summer, that was the reason why all the happenings in The Fair normally end up by the end of May beginning of June, because during the summer it simply gets too hot. We are trying to provide conditions good enough for the shows to take place during the summer, as well. That will surely provide a larger offer and possibilities, and a higher income. We will try to realize all the projects with the help of some foreign partners and the same way we will try to realize the project of the urban development plan of The Fair which will help us modernize the buildings and its surroundings. It is in our plans in the future to build a whole new hall and to modernize the roads around it. We plan to leave the green surface with the fountain in the middle, that is already existing, and to solve the problem of parking places, the garage, and what is my personal wish is to provide the Fair with a small marine, harbor, because it is on the bank of a river, and because privately I am a sailor. If we do not have a marine being on the river bank, which would enable either business ships or private boats to come, that wouldn't be a full usage of our space. For all this we need partnerships and I hope that in the close future when all the legislative rules about the customs, taxes, is solved the foreign investors would come and these projects will be built.
Which are the events that had a major success this year?
We have about 34 happenings during the year. Among those we have some that are especially highlighted according to the number of visitors and number of participants. One of them is the Motor Show, the Technique fair, Construction fair, Book fair and the latest one, the Furniture fair. These fairs due to their quality are recognized by The European International Fair Community which shows the level of their quality. It gives an international character to the Fair. For example, the Technique and Construction fair are the strongest and with the longest tradition in this area.
You mentioned before some services that The Fair can offer to the exhibitors, what are the specific services that The Belgrade Trade Fair can offer to the international businessmen now?
The Fair covers about 100,000 square meters. Apart from the telephones, fax machines and computers, we have a special contract that we've signed recently with an agency called "Sky Pass", that will be trusted the issue of providing the participants with accommodation, cultural program like theatre tickets or whatever the participants might be interested in, and their transportation for their stay in Belgrade. It is a package of all together that would enable our customer or participant both to enjoy the program of the fair as well as the program the city has to offer together with the sport, cultural or any other kind of event. Apart from that what we used to have and what we want to have again is the practice of organizing business meetings for the participants. We have the possibility to offer space here to organize either a small congress or meeting, it can also have a specific topic they would like to discuss about, the latest such event was about the privatization process, so we are willing and we are quite happy to meet the people, be the connection for them. The main aim of the fair is to provide a good quality of The Fair itself, also to connect people, to connect companies and broaden the range and experience, widen up service concerning both cultural and sports and business relationships.
| Regarding the modernization plans that you have what is your partnership strategy?
This year showed and proved that there is a lot of interest in partnerships. That would mean both sharing experience, but also investing money and we express our hope that The Fair would be able to create a sort of a competition and partnership that it definitely needs for reviving all the plans. What we are trying to do at the beginning is more make our way as really a partner. That is not an issue of being too proud. Our aim is to improve our quality as much as possible and to do it with our own capacity and, of course, with help of some investment. As you have probably noticed one of our biggest problems is that you have to cross the railroads to enter the Fair and it is sometimes really bothering. We want to solve that problem, but since it is a large investment, and since it has to deal with the whole city, it might be as well a part of their budget and they are trying to negotiate and see how we can split the costs. It is easy to give concessions to someone to build a garage and a road, but we are trying to do it without by ourselves.
What is the role of The Belgrade Trade Fair in establishing Belgrade as a crossroad for international business?
What we're trying to do is attracting foreign investors by increasing the quality of the already existing fairs, like Fashion fair or Tourism fair or Sport fair, which are not on the highest level right now, but we are improving them as much as possible and in that way we attract the interest of foreign investors.
You have already international cooperation with the fairs in Munich and Hanover, how about regional cooperation, do you have any good contacts or partnerships with Novi Sad Fair, for example?
Of course, we have an incredibly good cooperation with them. There are slight problems mostly with organization, since some shows happen take place at the same time. There is a friendly suggestion that Novi Sad should stick to the fairs that are really good there, such as the Agricultural fair, which is a very strong one in Novi Sad, and recently they started dealing with car show and computer show, which is not something they are best at, especially it is a useless thing to do if you have a strong car exhibition in Belgrade or even in Zagreb there is a large car exhibition. They should stick to traditional things that they are best at. There is another fair in Leskovac and Nis and that region is famous for good quality food and wine and they are not organizing car shows, for instance. My personal suggestion is that every fair should specialize in some field and it is better to have one thing that you do best in the world than have 50 other happenings that are not very good. You should always pay attention to the tradition, as well as the interest of the region, that you can measure according to the turn up of the exhibitors. That is why I mentioned the Sport fair and Tourism fair, in this case the Belgrade Fair, needs improvement because sports is definitely something that this country has to offer. We have always been good in sports and we have lots of things to offer in tourism and this is something we should really work on, because they do not have the level they should have. The natural beauties of one country are permanent and always modern and cannot be old fashioned. That is always something the people are interested in. What is general for all the countries in the world is nature and healthy food.
According to your forecast apart from tourism and sport, what will be the future economic trends of the Serbian consumers?
The future is in small and medium-sized companies. The example is the latest Furniture fair where more than 200 participants showed that they are still on the scene, that they have not lost their ideas and that they have something to offer. Once again, the future is in the small and medium-sized companies that stick to traditional production. I am not very keen on the local, domestic car industry, because it is what everybody does. I am also not keen on the computer industry. I am more interested in companies that stick to tradition and manufacturing in the industrial sense.
You have been appointed as general manager of The Belgrade Trade Fair in February 2001. What has been your professional experience before you were appointed?
I graduated in law in Belgrade, dealt with law for two years. For 25 years I was a high ranking official in the city Assembly. I am the president of the Swimming Association and Sailing Association.
What is your vision of The Belgrade Fair in ten years?
In the technical meaning I imagine Belgrade Fair as a modern fair, which will have a good quality service, which will also be a fair and business center, where all the professional and highly specialized meetings will be held and which will also be a sport and cultural center, tourist center together with the harbor. In a word, when your plan lands at the Airport and someone asks you where you are going to, you would say you are going to visit a friend, and of course, the Belgrade fair. The business point is of course, the increase of profit and income, that will enable the modernization of the Fair services, employing young managers, young staff, because young people have fresh ideas, enthusiasm, good quality work. They would bring their experience to the fair and raise the level of programs. Regarding the image, business, workforce, since we have a huge drawback, now we have to run faster, we need lots of things, lot of work is waiting for us in the future, and I hope that next time we meet I will be proud to show you the results.
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