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PHOTO: New jobs: Cornerstone for New Tobacco Factory set

President of the investors Arabian company BMJ Industries FZ LLC FZ LLC Isat Boljević said that the area of the new factory, expected to be done in a year, will be 28.000 square meters, while the infrastructure requires 4.000 square meters.

“We will also get new equipment, that has already been ordered from Germany. We will get four machines, 5 million EUR worth each”, he added.

As he said, the machines will enable the production to be 4 times better than it was in the old Tobacco Factory DKP. There will also be less employees, due to modernizes equipment.

After the facility of NDKP has been built, around 200 employees can find a job, and Boljević expects the production of 180 tonnes on a monthly basis, while in DKP monthly average was 80 tonnes of tobacco.

“National production will start when the new facility is built, because we can not achieve desired quality in old DKP”, he said.

According to him, company BMJ Industries FZ LLC is one of the leading companies in tobacco industry.

“Factory in Dubai is producing 200 containers on a monthly basis, and we can expect 100, which is 800 to 900 tonnes a month. If we succeed in this, Montenegro’s export of tobacco can be 800 million tonnes on a yearly level”, he was precise.

Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Petar Ivanović said that the building of the factory is a good opportunity to connect the production and processing.

“In this way, we can slowly overtake the market in the region, and we should try to get in the international market as well. It is hard to find economical sense in the fact that the investor is parallelly reconstructing the production in old DKP and starting the construction of new factory. The calculation at this time can not show positive result, but it is favorable when we think of strategic partnership development”, Ivanović said.

According to him, development of strategic partnership means looking 20 or 30 years ahead.

“Temporary loss of investors is regained in time. By taking tobacco production out of the city center in a different location, we start a zone that should be made of facilities dedicated primarily to agro industries”, Ivanović said.

Business zone on Tuški road in Podgorica, where the factory is being built on, should be made complete with other processing capacities that could be complementary to NDKP.

„In this way we would implement Government’s decision from a session in Kolašin, when we agreed to define agro industrial zones in at least three cities and make an effort to strengthen the segment of processing“, Ivanović explained.

He said that new equipment can have many effects on transport, logistics, customs, as well as many other services that can be provided, therefore improving the bad image Montenegro has when it comes to tobacco production.

„I believe our image can be improved in a way that entails normal production that can give jobs to a number of rural workers and have a respected investor in processing“, Ivanović said.

When it comes to old DKP, he said that machines have been remounted, and that one part of the workers has returned.

“Investor has achieved a lot so far, including ordering the equipment for the new factory, and inputs for production, which will ensure necessary quality of tobacco. Data shows that tobacco grown in our region has quality and tradition. We must return to that tradition, emphasize the quality, and overtake the market”, Ivanović said.

According to the manager of Capital City Drago Đeković, construction of the factory represents the start of very significant period for investments in the capital.

„I am glad that this project will open new job opportunities, which is very significant for Podgorica. In this regard we have taken many measures, and one of them is opening of business zones defined in December last year“, Đeković said.

When it comes to private and public partnership that can contribute to faster improvement of the city, he said that the Capital City has provided an area of 24.000 square meters and utility services.

“The participation of Capital City in construction of new facility of NDKP presents good continuation of cooperation with Ministry of Agriculture when it comes to improving agro business in Podgorica”, he concluded.

The contract with BMJ Industries has been signed in mid February. Arabian company was the only one to reply on 6th public call for privatization of NDKP and offered an investment of 20 million EUR.

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