Heralded as a "regional miracle and Serbian pride", the vaccine factory in the Zemun settlement of Soko Salaš, in which the state invested more than 48 million euros, five years later stands silent and empty, without a single vial produced
Right next to the highway from Belgrade towards Novi Sad, through the bare trunks of evergreen trees, a "regional miracle and Serbian pride" can be seen, as the factory vaccine u Zemun laying the foundation stone almost half a decade ago called the president of Serbia Aleksandar Vučić.
It was September 2021, a pandemic coronavirus carried on one of its waves, and the proud leaders of Serbia and friends from China and the United Arab Emirates crossed shovels and started the construction of the Chinese Sinofarm vaccine factory in Soko Salaš.
It was then announced that the plant will be able to produce and pack up to 30 million doses of vaccines for Serbia and the region annually.
At that moment, Serbia had already acquired large quantities of doses of Sinofarm and other vaccines, but the government warned that the world was facing new waves and new strains of the virus, and that domestic production was a matter of national security.
President Vučić said that he is proud that our country is not someone who will wait for the solution of problems in the back, relying on someone's help and charity, but someone who, together with Chinese and Arab partners, is trying and succeeding in solving some of the regional and global problems, in addition to their own.
An empty factory full of even more empty promises
Photo: Vreme/Katarina StevanovićThe vaccine factory in Zemun was supposed to be opened in April 2022.
The factory today looks exactly like the one in the picture that stood behind them while they were giving their speeches, but there is no production, no workers, and all that was promised on that September summer day.
Although according to the announcements at the time, 300 people were supposed to work in the factory, and the first contingents of vaccines from this facility were supposed to leave as early as April 2022, at the end of January 2026, the large facility is silent and empty, and not a single vaccine has left it.
A few passers-by, residents of Soko Salaš, a settlement in the municipality of Zemun where the structure was built, were confused and did not know the answer when asked if it was that factory. It's as if they don't pass by the gray and white plant every day, and as if they've never asked themselves why such a factory is there, when no one works in it.
"There is no one there," answers one elderly lady, while the other, as she rushes to the bus stop on the highway, says that it is not a vaccine factory and that we should go to Torlak.
Photo: Vreme/Katarina StevanovićThe factory has three directors.
48 million euros wasted
Photo: Vreme/Katarina StevanovićThe construction of the factory started in September 2021.
She made the decision to build the factory Government of Serbia 2021, and the formal holder of the project was the Ministry of Defense, which signed the contract with Chinese i Emirati partners.
More than 36 million euros were initially spent on the construction and equipping of the factory from the Republic of Serbia's budget, with additional allocations from the city budget, so that the total investment over time exceeded 48 million euros, as pointed out by critics of this, so far, failed project.
The fenced facility, which seems to have never been set foot in, is guarded by video surveillance.
The ramps at the entrance are lowered, and you can't go behind them. A security guard is sitting next to them in the video surveillance room, while behind him, footage from numerous cameras from the factory yard is changing in real time.
Photo: Vreme/Katarina StevanovićThe ramps are down.
He politely says that no one can go behind the ramp, but that he cannot forbid journalists from taking photos from the parking lot outside the fence.
One car is parked in the yard of the factory, and at a distance of about a hundred meters on the other side of the fence, you can see the lights on behind the glass front door.
Promises in the fog
Photo: Vreme/Katarina StevanovićEntry to the yard is not allowed
Health Minister Zlatibor Lončar and President of Serbia Aleksandar Vučić promised that around 30 million vaccines should be produced in the factory annually, both for the domestic and foreign markets. It was also announced that the total capacity will be 40 million vaccines.
It is planned to first carry out filling and packaging, and then complete production, which would give Serbia its own vaccine factory of that capacity for the first time in history.
The announced deadlines have passed, and from Ministry of Health, Ministry of Defense in whose jurisdiction is the factory and which made the formal decision on its construction in 2021, nor from the Belgrade company Life Biotech that manages this factory, did not respond to "Vremena"'s inquiry as to why the factory did not start operating, when it will, and why the deadlines were not met.
The Life Biotech company was registered on December 15, 2021, according to the Agency for Economic Registers. The address is Soko Salaš number two, and it is a joint stock company in which ownership is shared by Hayat Biotech from the United Arab Emirates and the Republic of Serbia. Arabs have majority ownership at 67 percent.
The company has three legal representatives, i.e. directors - from Serbia, China and the Emirates.
Photo: Vreme/Katarina StevanovićThe foundation stone was laid by, among others, Aleksandar Vučić
The fact that these three countries jointly laid the foundation stone for the factory is also reminded by the three flags displayed in front of the plant's fence.
They are not flying in the air, but lying on the ground, flattened, like the ambitions that brought them there. Just as, five years later, there are no big promises about regional leadership in vaccine production.
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