Norway to Aid Serbia in Carrying Out Energy Sector Reform

BETAPHOTO/MINISTRY of MINING and ENERGY

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said on Nov. 28 that a business forum with Norwegian companies and advisors "interested in helping Serbia and investing" in Serbia, more specifically its energy sector reform, would be held in Oslo.

Vucic told reporters that he had discussed energy and investing in renewable energy sources with the king, prime minister and parliament speaker of Norway, and that he had received a proposal for energy reform implementation in Serbia from a Norwegian company.

Serbia will work on those reforms "together" with Norway, Vucic said, adding that big changes in public enterprises were the first step, and that he had offered the Norwegians "to send one of their people to have an executive function," not specifying the public enterprise.

Serbian Minister of Mining and Energy Dubravka Djedovic met in Oslo with Andreas Bjelland Eriksen, state secretary at the Norwegian Ministry of Petroleum and Energy, and Kjetil Lund, director at the Norwegian Water Resources and Energy Directorate.

She stressed that experiences were exchanged in the meeting about planning sustainably for energy investments and utilizing Serbia's resources in the best and most efficient way.

"Our first goal, on which we are working with our Norwegian partners, is to stabilize the energy system in the next two years. The second goal is medium-term -- planning energy transition so that we have more renewable energy sources from wind, solar and hydro capacities by 2030. The third and final goal is decarbonization of the energy sector and energy system stability by 2050," Djedovic said.