Vucic said the project would result in an increase in GDP and employment and that in ten years' time the Serbian capital would be a tourist centre with more visits than Budapest.
The project is a joint investment by the city of Belgrade and the Eagle Hills company from the United Arab Emirates. The project, on which an agreement was signed on April 26 this year, is a business and apartment complex in which Serbia will invest 32% of the necessary capital and Eagle Hills 68%.
The complex, covering an area of some 177 hectares, consists of more than one million square metres of residential space, around 750,000 square metres of office and commercial space, of more than 62,000 square metres of kindergarten, school, and cultural and medical office space, as well as around 242,000 square metres of green space.
It is estimated that more than 13,000 people will work and more than 17,000 will live in the complex.
The project has been declared a project of special importance for Serbia and Belgrade, however, direct negotiations between the investor and Serbian authorities and the way the project is to be implemented have been criticised by architects and urban development experts and opposed by opposition political parties and numerous nongovernmental organisations.
The foundation stone laying ceremony was preceded by a protest of several hundred people.