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Serbia to bid farewell to over $200 bln of real estate in Kosovo

Other News Materials 19 February 2008 08:36 (UTC +04:00)

( RIA Novosti) - Serbia is set to lose real estate worth some $220 billion following Kosovo's unilateral declaration of independence on Sunday, the Tanjug news agency said on Monday.

The Belgrade-based Tanjug agency said the estimated value of private property belonging to the more than 30,000 Serbian families who fled Kosovo in 1999 was at least $4 billion.

Serbia is set to lose agricultural land, forests, administrative, industrial and residential buildings, as well as government-owned facilities along with Kosovo, the country's historic heartland. It will also lose military property, with the Slatina airport alone estimated at more than $100 million.

According to the World Bank, Kosovo's mineral resources are worth over $19 billion. Kosovo holds substantial reserves of brown coal, tin, zinc, nickel, cobalt, bauxites, silver, iron, gold, platinum and copper.

Serbia invested some $17 billion in Kosovo between 1960 and 1990.

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