Serbian president visits robot factory in Jiaxing, stresses role of technology

When robots performed Serbia's Moravac folk dance on Wednesday at an innovation center in Jiaxing, Zhejiang province, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic saw more than a display of smart technology.

In a social media post after visiting an innovation center at the Future Factory of Minth Group, Vucic said that he had seen how robots are assembled and how they can be used in daily life, industry and entertainment.

He said that the performance of the Serbian folk dance showed that technology is not only about science and machines, but also about understanding the tradition and spirit of a people.

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Such technologies would soon come to Serbia with the support of Chinese friends and partners, bringing a completely new development energy to the country, he said.

Vucic visited Minth Group's facility in Jiaxing on Wednesday during his trip to Zhejiang. The company, a global supplier of automotive exterior parts, body structural components and products related to new energy vehicles, entered the Serbian market in 2018 and has since built 10 factories in the country, making it an important participant in China-Serbia industrial cooperation.

At the factory, Serbian young people demonstrated robotic operation skills they had learned there, drawing applause from Vucic and underscoring the role of skills training in bilateral industrial cooperation.

During the visit, Vucic also met representatives of major Chinese companies interested in investing in Serbia. He said the two sides discussed concrete projects, new factories, advanced technologies, and opportunities to provide even more jobs. Vucic said that the investment agreements reached and signed by the two sides on Wednesday, worth a total of 953 million euros ($1.11 billion), represented an enormous amount for Serbia.

The visit came amid deepening local-level cooperation and people-to-people exchanges between Zhejiang and the European country. In 2025, trade between Zhejiang and Serbia reached $990 million, up 11.1 percent year-on-year.

Zhejiang and Serbia have established four pairs of city-level friendly exchange relationships, while nearly 10 universities in Zhejiang have developed stable partnerships with Serbian educational institutions.

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The China-Serbia Youth Cultural Exchange Center was also unveiled on Wednesday in Jiaxing. Designed as a long-term platform for bilateral youth exchanges, the center will focus on emerging fields such as smart manufacturing, new energy, humanoid robots and the low-altitude economy. Under the program, 500 young people from Serbia will be invited to visit China.

At the center's opening, Vucic called it "a true treasure" for Serbia, where young people will learn about new technologies and return home with advanced knowledge. He encouraged them to learn from the Chinese people, build friendships with their Chinese peers, and take knowledge back to Serbia to contribute to the nation's development.

People-to-people exchanges are of the utmost importance for Serbia and valuable for Chinese young people, as the two sides adapt to different cultures and learn how to work better together, Vucic said.

Contact the writers at zhaojia@chinadaily.com.cn