February 23 (SeeNews) - China's Zijin Mining Group, Zijin Bor Copper and the local arm of steel producer HBIS Group were Serbia's three leading exporters last year, the finance ministry said.

In 2023, exports by Zijin Mining Group amounted to 1.15 billion euro ($1.25 billion), Zijin Bor Copper exported produce worth 746.3 million euro and the HBIS Group's exports totalled 549.1 billion euro, the finance ministry said in a report published on Wednesday.

Chinese companies accounted for approximately 8.7% of Serbia's 28.6 billion euro in exports last year, according to data from the national statistics office.

China has invested billions of euro in Serbia in the last decade, mostly in energy projects and as loans for infrastructure.

The latest investment - a 2 billion euro project for the construction of 2 GW of renewable energy facilities - was unveiled last month when Serbia signed a Memorandum of Understanding with China’s Shanghai Fengling Renewables Co Ltd and Zijin Bor Copper for the construction of 1,500 MW wind power plant, a 500 MW solar power plant, and a factory for the production of green hydrogen with a capacity of around 30,000 metric tons annually. The investor is Shanghai Fengling and the energy will be used for the production needs of Serbia Zijin Copper.

A few months earlier, in September, Zijin Mining Group said it will invest $3.8 billion in the development of the Cukaru Peki Lower Zone mine of the Timok copper-gold project in eastern Serbia.