The Covid-19 pandemic brought global supply chains into disarray. The disruptions brought by the COVID-19 pandemic made companies think about increasing the resilience of their production through shorter, more diversified supply chains, geographically closer locations, more production at home and increased inventories.
The Nearshoring Study has assessed the questions – can Western Balkan economies benefit from these potential changes in global production, and if yes, how could this be achieved?
The answer to the first question would undoubtedly be yes, Western Balkan economies can certainly benefit from possible changes in global production in the coming years. Nearshoring, i.e. moving of production from locations which are more distant from home to ones which are closer, is likely to occur in the coming years, at least for some European companies
Western Balkan economies come as a natural choice for nearshoring – they are geographically close to Germany (and Western Europe in general), and they have among the lowest production costs in the whole of Europe. Some investment promotion agencies from the Western Balkans have stated in their interviews with the chamber partnership project team that they are already seeing increased interest from foreign companies.
