According to CCTV News, on the 29th local time, Serbia's first robot factory officially began production in Sabac, a city in the country's west. Jointly built by China and Serbia, the factory is also Europe's first humanoid robot mass-production base. Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said at the factory's production launch ceremony that this was an important step for Serbia toward the future.
On the day the factory began production, its first humanoid robot officially rolled off the production line. Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic interacted with the humanoid robot, which also demonstrated various functions on site, including Chinese calligraphy, folding clothes, playing chess, and dancing.
Vucic noted that humanoid robot production has opened up a new area of technological development for Serbia. Serbia hopes to combine robot manufacturing with industries such as artificial intelligence, supercomputers, and data centers, driving local talent development and employment while giving Serbia an important position in the development of Europe's robotics industry.
According to reports, the factory's first-phase investment is 20 million euros (approximately 157 million yuan at the current exchange rate), covering about 3000 square meters. It will mainly handle the assembly of humanoid robots and robot dogs, as well as the calibration and performance testing of motion and vision systems. The humanoid robots produced at the factory currently come in different models. These robots will first be used in industrial production and gradually expand into fields such as education and public services.
Under the plan, the project will later also build a robotics industrial park in Serbia, with a planned total investment of approximately 200 million euros (approximately 1.566 billion yuan at the current exchange rate). Once the project is fully completed, annual production capacity for humanoid robots and robot dogs is expected to reach up to 20,000 units, with products targeting European and global markets.
According to information released by Jiaxing, the base was invested in and built by Minth Group, which is based in Jiaxing, Zhejiang. On May 27 this year, Vucic made a special visit to Minth Group's Future Factory in Jiaxing, remarking that “this place is like the 22nd century.” Just 3 months later, Europe's “first base” for humanoid robot mass production was established in Serbia, marking a new stage in high-end smart manufacturing cooperation between China and Serbia.
Minth has been developing its operations in Serbia since 2018 and has established 10 factories there. The first phase of the Sabac robotics base received an investment of 20 million euros. Zhao Wei, general manager of Minth Intelligent Robotics Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of Minth Group, said that Serbian employees in the base's core positions had first traveled to Minth's headquarters in Jiaxing to complete systematic training. “What China is exporting is not a monopolized end product, but an entire industrial system encompassing technology, the supply chain, and talent development.”