- What do you think is the most important thing said and done in China?
- First, I'd say, our political relations.
I've really received ovations in China, and only me.
- I've heard from colleagues that went with you.
- I was the only one-
It's because I said I was fed up
with living in a world of hypocrisy.
Because up until 5 or 3 years ago, they were telling us:
"This is the era of globalization, the free world, the liberal world
market economies, we don't need tariffs or protectionism."
And when they figured out that China beat them all.
That China was winning in all fields - the field of
robotics, that China was winning in AI, artificial intelligence,
that China was beating them in absolutely everything.
Then they said: "Wait a second,
it's not the markets any more,
we don't want absolutely free markets.
Now let's have some "transparency", then we can see
how we can protect our production with protectionist policies."
- You said, you spoke about hypocrisy?
- Of course, this is hypocrisy of the worst kind.
- For this, you received ovations?
- Yes, and then I said
"How come China is bothering you now, and it wasn't just yesterday?"
Then they all spoke, and what they said was,
one of the Western representatives that was there said:
"How come many countries today - i.e
Djibouti, Montenegro, Sri Lanka and I don't know -
have a huge problem with
their government debt rising because of Chinese loans?"
So you can understand how this all works, please let me explain.
People should know about this.
- So, they're afraid of China's soft power?
- No, they're afraid of China's power and the story that they -
because they were living a lie
that the Chinese were the ones copying something, which stopped being a trend
20 years ago. The people are living in the 90's
many of them.
- But at the same time, they want to work with China?
- They want Chinese money and the Chinese market,
but want to stop China.
- How do you explain this ambivalence?
- How should I put this? It's both hypocritical and fiendish,
but that's something China deals with easily. The problem is
that they tell us we need tariffs for protection,
protectionist policies,
so that their economies can stay strong
and the Chinese can fail. And I don't care about all that.
I care about what's best for Serbia
They blame China for the rising debt
in these countries?
That's a flat-out lie. The Chinese, when they offer you a loan,
they offer you, e.g for us in the steel plant, in Zijin, in Lilong,
we're not even talking about loans
in the industrial park, we're not talking about loans,
but when you do take out a loan for an infrastructural project -
they give you 7 years grace, 20 years return time
and the interest rate is lower both with negative and positive EURIBOR.
So, in any case, they give you the best conditions,
and it's the government's job,
it's our job in Serbia, it's their job in the region,
it's everyone's job in the world to take care of their financial stability,
of their public finances,
to know whether they can take out a loan.
It has nothing to do with China.
It's, how should I put this, a bunch of lies,
and you're looking at someone lying to your face.
I have a huge experience with all of this by now.
I've been a part of, or have led, one of the hardest reforms
vindicated by the IMF and World Bank.
Christine Lagarde sat with me 3-4 times over there, because she
knows what we did in Serbia, because she respects Serbia.
Because she knows what we achieved and how hard it was,
I know this better than most people
and our representatives in the world.
- My colleagues tell me
you've received lots of support from representatives of the African countries?
- When I finished-
- Does that mean
that you're founding the Non-Aligned Movement again?
Or that we are.
- When I finished my speech
even the Swiss president applauded,
which I found interesting, but I was also greeted by representatives
of many Asian and African countries. That was a huge PR move for Serbia.
42 world leaders, including the UN General Secretary
Gutteres, the IMF chief Christine Lagarde,
and Chinese president Xi Jinping, there was also Putin and
39 other leaders
38 other leaders from
countries around the world, out of which
only Djibouti and Cyprus had a lower population than Serbia.
Maybe also one other country
our size, but take that with a grain of salt.
We received ovations. People came to us
President Kenyatta
came over and said
great speech.
All of a sudden, everyone was coming up to me.
For the first time, I met with Duterte,
the President of the Philippines, they're joining the top 20 economies soon.
Not to brag about all the others. I was approached
by Peter O'Neill, a man I pleaded with over the phone, from Papua New Guinea.
I pleaded with him over an UNESCO vote, I think.
Papua New Guinea with 8 million inhabitants, more than Serbia, so
what I want to say is,
I don't want to tell someone where Port Moresby is,
I was never
there myself, and probably will never get the chance, but this was a chance to
meet with these people and talk about all of this.
The people said, "Hey, this was great. Someone finally said
what we have all been thinking, and none of us had the courage to speak out about"
- You're visiting Africa soon?
- I planned to, but, how should I say, I think this is a great
opportunity for us. That we should visit Africa,
that we should visit Asia. Asia is home to
28% of the world's GDP today.
Just 10 years from now, it'll be 34%.
Everything in Asia is growth.
All the numbers are growing. The economy
is primarily growing there. Of course, you always have the strong America.
The strong, the very strong America.
And then you have Europe...
which is, industrially,
and thanks to Germany, very strong.
But, which is seriously lagging in AI behind China and America.
So, China is, I'd say, just barely ahead,
if I might say so, in front of America.
America is following close by, Europe, on the other hand,
is falling behind. But, take a look at what the Chinese
are buying. The Chinese recently bought KUKA.
The strongest German robotics company.
When you visit Volkswagen, Mercedes,
all the robots doing the welding, all KUKA.
So they tried to stop them, to find their own people
who could buy KUKA, the Chinese still bought it.
With anything worth anything, the Chinese are the fastest.
The Chinese are, as I hear from
Masayoshi Son, a Japanese man from the Forbes list,
who was even the richest person in the world for a period.
I heard him speak in Abu Dhabi, Masayoshi Son
said "Guys, you can't catch up to the Chinese.
They're hungry, not in the sense that they're really hungry,
they're hungry for winning, hungry for first place."
Merkel even commented on this fact in Munich, and said
"You know, we want to be number one, we were number one for
most of history, up until the 15th or 16th century, the
number one force in the world,
but then we missed out on the industrial revolution.
We won't let that happen again." Which happened to Serbia too,
we missed out on everything, de facto,
missing out on the 4th industrial revolution, from the 90's up until 2010.
Now is the time to catch up
with the world, even though we are a small country.
To catch up with the world, never miss out again.
And to be a part of everything going on in the world,
and to look at the future, have a good understanding
what it is that's going on in the world.
Not what we like,
but what the trend is, what wins,
and where we can get the most for our country.
As for the Non-Aligned Movement, I don't think we're founding anything,
but if the question is do we want much better relations...
much better relations with African countries, Asian countries,
and will someone get the idea to
set the foundations for such a thing in the future - that I deeply believe.
Because, the front and the power of sovereign, independent
countries of the world, which are respected
no matter their size, including the Republic of Serbia,
grows stronger and more powerful every day.
And these people are much more open about their attitudes
and they aren't easy to beat.
- Just one more question-
- Which is good for us.
- Where is this country heading in the next couple of years?
Will children in this country learn Chinese or English in school?
I propose, English.
Chinese is fine and all, but please, let's not kid around with these things.
English is the way to go, and from the 1st grade too!
