ZASTAVA NOT AWARDED THE LICENCE FOR EXPORT OF WEAPONS

EASTBUSINESS.ORG
January 4, 2007 Thursday 4:25 PM (Central European Time)

Dragoljub Grujovic, the General Manager of Serbian weapons manufacturer
Zastava Oruzje announced Wednesday that the Ministry of International
Economic Relations would not award this factory the licence for export
of arms to Armenia for technical reasons.

He said that he was notified by the Ministry that the permit would not
be issued Wednesday, because of the absence of one of the Ministers,
whose Ministry is also supposed to approve the exports to Armenia.

Grujovic said he believed that the factory will be issued a licence
the following day and pointed out that all the conditions for the
export of arms to Armenia, worth USD 2.64 million, have been met. He
also pointed out the significance of this deal for the continuation
of the investment cycle initiated at the factory.

In December, the Serbian Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not approve
the export of arms to Armenia, which caused a protest of the company
s employees to be launched.

After the intervention of the President of Serbia, Boris Tadic,
Russian officials announced that Russia is not opposed to the export
of arms to Armenia and the realisation of this deal is now expected.