Companies from Azerbaijan, China, and Russia are the largest investors in Montenegro. Azerbaijan still holds first place in terms of investment volume in the country. However, the Central Bank does not name either the figure or the investors from this country because, as they explain, that would encroach on the sphere of business secrecy.
The largest Azerbaijani investment is related to the construction and management of the Porto Novi resort (Porto Novi) near Herceg Novi, in which around 700 million euros have been invested so far. The main investor in the project is the state oil company of Azerbaijan, SOCAR.
In second place are companies from China with investments in our country of almost 71 million euros. Recall that the Chinese had previously pushed Russians out of this position, who ended up in second place. Russians are now in third position with investments of 54 million euros, having pushed Italian investors, who held this position until recently.
“They are followed by investors from Switzerland with 48.3 million euros, Italy – 44 million, the USA – 24.5 million, the United Arab Emirates – 24.1 million euros, Germany – 22 million, Serbia – 18.7 million euros, the Netherlands – 17.4 million euros.” This was reported by the Central Bank, noting that these are preliminary data.
Among the “smaller” investments in the country are companies from Turkey with 12.7 million, the UK – 11 million, Estonia – almost 10 million, Austria – 9 million, and Slovenia – more than 8 million.
The inflow of investment in real estate amounted to 85.5 million euros, which is also 40.9 percent less. This year, according to the Central Bank, real estate was mainly bought by Russians – 18 million in total, followed by Americans – 9.4 million, Germans – 9.3 million, Serbs – 8.3 million, and Swiss – 6.8 million euros.
When asked what kind of investor attitude they expect next year, given the COVID-19 pandemic and the change of government in Montenegro, the Central Bank replied that the country will remain an attractive place for investment in the new year.