Business Partnership Central

In an international alliance that seems to have wider-than-industry implications, the Italian automotive giant, Fiat, and Serbian industrial conglomerate, Zastava, signed an agreement last week on strategic cooperation and joint investment.  As reported, the memorandum would give Fiat a 70% stake in Zastava (the state would continue to own the remaining 30%), and mark Fiat's return to Serbia, where it had had close to 50 years of good cooperation.

Fiat's arrival means

• Substantial financial investment
• Intensified production
• Expansion of manufacturing
• Revival of the domestic metal industry
• Attraction of foreign manufacturers for spare parts production
• Increased employment not only in Kragujevac, where Zastava is headquartered, but in other towns throughout the country