11.03.2017.
Defence Minister visits factories in Lučani and Čačak
Defence Minister Zoran Đorđević has visited today Milan Blagojevic Namenska Company in Lučani and Sloboda JSC in Čačak.
Today's visit was also attended by State Secretary of the Ministry of Defence Nenad Nerić, Acting Assistant Minister of Defence for Material Resources Nenad Miloradović and Chief of Defence Technology of the Ministry of Defence Major General Bojan Zrnić.
During the visit to the special-purpose industry factory in Lučani, a meeting was held attended by Minister Đorđević and his associates, Director of the factory Radoš Milovanović, Director of PU Srbijavode Goran Puzović, representatives of the Municipality and representatives of trade union of Milan Blagojević Namenska Company. At the meeting, it was concluded that the factory in Lučani had achieved record results in the production in 2016 and it was expected that production in 2017, which had already been agreed, would be even greater. They also highlighted the importance of cooperation between the factory and the Military Technical Institute in the development of new technologies for the production of better quality gunpowder.
The minister and his associates visited the facility for "Continuous nitration of cellulose" and facility for drainage and gelatinization of double base propellant, and then they visited the works on the construction of the dam on the Bjelica River, which is built for the protection against the most frequent flooding in this part of Serbia which affect the factory itself.
During the visit to the Sloboda JSC in Čačak, Minister Đorđević visited the "Plant for the production of medium- and large-calibre cartridge cases" and facility for "Machining by cutting". After the visit, Defence Minister held a meeting with his associates and leadership of the Sloboda JSC which was attended by Director General Zoran Stefanović and representatives of the trade union of the Company.
Acting Assistant minister Nenad Miloradović pointed out that today's visits are "regular tour during which representatives of the Ministry of Defence review the results in achieving the set objectives."
- The objectives relate primarily to the operation and setting up of new production lines and the progress of other measures that the Ministry sets for the factories in order to improve the general state of the defence industry. Today we came to the conclusion that the defence industry worked very well last year, and the factory in Lučani and Čačak are among the best, Miloradović said.
According to him, Milan Blagojevic has already had an increase in production last year, compared to the year before last, by 37 percent, and Sloboda Company even by 67 percent.
- The level of investments is very high. Last year, the factory in Lučani invested six million euros in new facilities, this year it has planned to invest seven million euros. In 2016, Sloboda invested seven, and this year it plans to invest 11 millions. For both factories, we can safely say that both the production and the investments are very visible, Miloradović said.
He added that both factories belong to the group of "munitions factories" which represents one of the most dangerous types of production.
- In the last five years, there were about 80 incidents with tragic consequences in the munitions factories in the world. Every effort should be invested so that such incidents do not happen and that the consequences are minimized. The Ministry of Defence has made a plan a year and a half ago for the entire defence industry - in order to maximally improve all automated measures to prevent incidents, and these measures are implemented precisely through investment cycles. Also, we have adopted a set of short-term and long-term measures to be taken. They will never be sufficient, but we will continue to maximally improve them, Acting Assistant Minister Miloradović said.
