[INTERVIEW] Serbia hopes to become Korea's gateway to Europe

Serbian Ambassador to Korea Nemanja Grbic speaks during an interview with The Korea Times at the country's embassy in central Seoul, Feb. 6. Korea Times photo by Choi Won-suk

Serbian ambassador looks to grow awareness of country beyond sporting prowess

By Kwon Mee-yoo

Serbia is not widely recognized in Korea, however, the nation has been gaining more attention in recent years, mainly due to the success of its athletes and sports teams.

Serbian Ambassador to Korea Nemanja Grbic expressed his hopes for increased cooperation across a broader range of areas between the two countries in an interview with The Korea Times at the country's embassy in central Seoul, Feb. 6.

The interview occurred during the lead up to Serbia's Statehood Day, which is observed on Feb. 15.

"It is a day on which the First Serbian Uprising occurred against the Ottoman Empire, who was ruling Serbia at that time, in 1804. That was the first (Serbian) uprising on Feb. 15. And also on the same date, we adopted the first modern constitution of Serbia (in 1835). So that's why we celebrate Feb. 15 every year," Ambassador Grbic explained.

With the advancement of social media and other modern channels of communication, it is becoming easier and easier to follow what's going on in the world.

"People are able to watch foreign films, foreign TV dramas, but also international sports. And I think sport is something that Serbia really excels in," he said.

"So, when you mention Serbia to Korean people here, most of them will know about (Novak) Djokovic, the world no. 1 tennis player. But not only him. For example, Nikola Jokic, who was the MVP in the NBA league back-to-back, he's also Serbian. So, I would say that most of the Korean young people who are interested in Serbia got to know about it through sports, soccer, basketball, volleyball, handball, tennis and so on."

Serbia boasts a strong presence in the Korean martial art of taekwondo, especially with the remarkable achievement of Milica Mandic who won two gold medals at the Olympics. In the 2020 Tokyo Summer Games, Mandic claimed the gold medal in the women's taekwondo +67kg category by defeating Korea's Lee Da-bin.

"Taekwondo is also very popular (in Serbia). I have a meeting with the head of the World Taekwondo Headquarters here to talk about how to work more on the cooperation in the field of taekwondo," he said.

"Korea has done a lot in promoting Taekwondo in Serbia, helping a lot of clubs and associations in Serbia in providing instructors and gear. So we have to attribute a part of our success in taekwondo on the international level to Korean efforts as well and I believe this is a very important thing when we speak about sports cooperation."

The older generation might remember Serbia in relation to the Yugoslav Wars of the 1990s, but Ambassador Grbic said that the country has much more to offer three decades on.

"Some people might be associating Serbia and the whole region of the Balkans with the wars that happened in the 90s and that creates obviously some kind of an obstacle when you try to promote a positive image about Serbia," he said.

The fact that not many people are familiar with Serbia presents both an opportunity and a challenge for Ambassador Grbic as he tries to reach Koreans to spread awareness about Serbia.

"My job here is to let Korean people know that, first of all, so much time has passed after those happenings and the second thing is that there are so many positive aspects of the country, of the people, of the culture and history that are still unknown here and that we want to shed some more light on."

Ada Bridge in Belgrade, capital of Serbia / gettyimagesbank

Serbia has put a significant emphasis on its relationship with Korea, especially in terms of economic cooperation, with both its president and prime minister focusing their attention on the country.

Recently, there has been productive and positive exchange at the highest level between the two countries, indicating a strengthening of the bilateral relationship. In January, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic held a meeting with South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

"The meeting was an opportunity for two heads of state to reaffirm a very good and strong bilateral cooperation between the two countries on the political level, but also talk about the economic cooperation. One of the topics that they talked about was the investment opportunities in Serbia and our president invited President Yun Suk Yeol to get Korean companies to invest more in Serbia," Grbic said.

The two countries' Prime Ministers met on the sidelines of the Bureau International des Expositions last November as well.

"Korea has the EXPO 2030 candidacy and we have (a candidacy for) 2027 specialized EXPO in Belgrade. We would appreciate the support of Korea for this candidacy," the ambassador said, adding that Serbian Prime Minister Ana Brnabic invited her Korean counterpart Han Duck-soo to visit Serbia.

Currently, around six Korean companies are operating in Serbia, primarily in the automotive industry. According to the ambassador, there has been growing interest from Korean companies in investing in Serbia, particularly in sectors such as information and communications technology (ICT), renewable energy and agriculture.

Grbic cited Serbia's advantageous geostrategic location between the West and the East, as well as the government's generous and comprehensive tax policies, as reasons for this growing interest.

"A very important thing that I want to mention in this context is the fact that Serbia and Korea are now engaging in initial talks for an FTA (free trade agreement) ... Also, we expect that this year, we will be concluding the bilateral investment treaty. So with these two agreements, once we have them signed, we'll create a very solid and important legal framework for economic cooperation between Serbia and Korea," he said.

The ICT sector is the fastest-growing segment of the Serbian economy and Grbic attributed the growth of the ICT sector in Serbia to several factors.

"First of all is that the government has adopted a lot of stimulative measures to enhance the ICT sector as we believe that the Fourth Industrial Revolution and digitalization are a huge potential for economic development of the country. The other thing is the very talented and gifted young people and the education system. Recently we have adopted and introduced programming and software engineering in elementary schools," he explained.

There also are a number of successful homegrown IT companies in Serbia as well as numerous foreign companies that have established research and development centers in the country, including Microsoft and Bosch.

"The ICT and everything that belongs to the ICT area, we see a great potential of cooperation between the two countries," Grbic said.

The ambassador also highlighted the importance of people-to-people exchanges.

"I think still there is a lot of potential for public diplomacy and promotional work here. If we can manage to attract more Korean tourists to go there and get to know Serbia firsthand, that really means a lot to overall relations between our two countries and gaining a positive image of Serbia and Serbian people here in Korea," he said.

The Korean wave, including K-pop and Korean dramas, has had a significant impact on Serbia and there is a growing interest in Korean culture, but the ambassador thinks there is still room for enhancing awareness in both countries

"Even though people in Serbia probably know more about Korea than people in Korea knowing about Serbia, I would say that Korea is relatively a still slightly unknown country to Serbia and in that sense, these people-to-people exchanges, student exchanges, university MOUs and public diplomacy, in general, could contribute to expanding knowledge about the two countries."