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The Government of the Republic of Serbia

In the service of citizens

Concession contract for Horgos-Pozega highway signed

Belgrade, 30 March 2007

Serbian Minister of Capital Investment Velimir Ilic signed today a contract on granting concessions for construction, use and maintenance of the Horgos-Pozega highway with a consortium comprising FCC Construccion S.A. and Alpine Mayreder Bau GmbH.

On behalf of the consortium, the contract was signed by Director of FCC Construccion SA Alessandro Tuya Garcia and Director of Alpine Mayreder Bau GmbH Hans Jurgen Miko.

Ilic told a press conference that the concession contract will be valid for the next 25 years whereas the deadline to complete the highway is five years.

The works will be done in phases and will include construction of the left track of 106 km Horgos-Novi Sad highway, maintenance of 68 km Novi Sad-Belgrade highway and construction of 148 km Belgrade-Pozega highway.

He added that the contract is worth €800 million, excluding bank interest.

The Minister also said that this is one of the greatest projects in Serbia’s history and it will connect Central and Western Serbia and Montenegro with Central Europe and Belgrade, as has been planned.

Apart from railways linking Belgrade-Bar and Belgrade-Nis, this work is of the largest volume and the greatest investment in Serbia, said Ilic and pointed out that the signed contract does not burden the state budget since the construction of the highway will be financed from toll revenues.

Ilic stressed that the construction of this road will be of huge importance for Serbia’s development and thanked Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica for his full endorsement of the project.

FCC President José Mayor Oreja noted that his company has considerable experience in concession projects which it has been implementing in Spain in the past 12-13 years and which it will now carry out in Serbia and contribute to the country’s development by employing the domestic workforce.

Oreja explained that from a technical viewpoint, there are two important moments in a concession project such as this one, and these are that the concession allows the budget to be used for other purposes and not for the concession, and that works on the infrastructure are the greatest motive force of a country’s economy.