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The Government of the Republic of Serbia

In the service of citizens

Serbia opens doors to big investments

Belgrade, 23 June 2006

Serbian Minister of Capital Investment Velimir Ilic said in an interview for today's edition of the daily Vecernje Novosti that Serbia has its opened doors to big investments and is finally ready to start with serious projects.

Ilic primarily mentioned works on the Prokop railway station worth over €200 million and works on roads throughout Serbia worth around €300 million.

He added that contracts valued at approximately €2 billion regarding works on the reconstruction and construction of roads are about to be signed. These are all projects whose realisation will take two or more years, he added.

Ilic stressed that the Ministry has not given up on the project to construct the Horgos-Jadran motorway and talks with Montenegro about certain sections of the motorway are still underway. According to Ilic, it is in the interest of both Serbia and Montenegro to make this motorway part of Corridor 10, because the EU has given Serbia the opportunity and a three-year deadline to complete the Corridor.

As for the highway from Nis to the Bulgarian border, Ilic said that negotiations with the World Bank and European banks are underway, so there is a possibility for that project to be financed from a loan or concessions.

The Minister said that Greeks are very interested in activating the Hellenic Plan, because the construction of a highway from Leskovac to the Macedonian border, will not only attract tourists from Serbia, but those from central Europe as well.

Speaking about the highway from Novi Sad to Beska which is being built by Austrian company Alpine-Mayreder, Ilic said that construction works were delayed because some projects, including this one, had been stopped by the International Monetary Fund. However, in the meantime, permission for construction was obtained again and the works will be resumed.

Ilic said that he still has not received a report from the tender commission concerning the renovation of the bridge at Beska. However, it is certain that Serbia's national consortium will not finance this project because the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development disqualified it. The problematic member of the national consortium was only "Mostogradnja" due to its large debts. It is yet to be seen whether the work will be assigned to another contractor.