Q:
A:
More than 1,000 kilometres of roads built or modernised
Belgrade,
20 December 2004
Serbian Minister of Capital Investment Velimir Ilic spoke with daily Politika yesterday about the ministry’s achievements, ways to animate big investment in Serbia, building the road and railway infrastructure, and addressing the telecommunications sector. The Serbian government’s official web site provides excerpts from the interview.
Velimir Ilic
Capital projects in road and railway transport:
Unless Serbia starts carrying out capital projects in 2005, we will disappear from the transport map of Europe. While we are negotiating and arguing endlessly, our neighbours, Hungary, Romania, and Bulgaria, are building highways and creating new corridors that link the West and the East. Europe has neither patience nor time to wait on us. Highway corridors are the main artery of contemporary trade and large international companies are carefully measuring the time their trucks spend at our border crossings and their trains wait on our railroads. Our customs is very slow: as many as four ministries are in charge of a single border crossing, instead of one directorate that would enable faster flow of goods and people.
Ways to animate big investment in Serbia:
Concessions are the only way to animate big investment in Serbia. It is true that foreign investors are interested in this market. In all my talks with European officials and representatives of international companies, they assured me that Belgrade is seen as an important regional centre. We can get favourable loans for capital projects but our problem is the fact that we are slow in changing our regulations.
Achievements of the Ministry of Capital Investment:
Despite a hard blow that we received after the budget revision, we have managed to carry out all our plans, and to achieve even more. The 24-kilometre section of the Leskovac-Grdelicka Klisura highway has been completed and 63 kilometres of the Novi Sad-Subotica highway have been upgraded. The second lane of the Belgrade-Beska highway has been opened to traffic and numerous roads built or modernized, including ring-roads and viaducts near Cacak, Gornji Milanovac, and Zajecar. The bridge on the Sava near Ostruznica has been repaired and it will soon be opened to traffic. Highways leading to Montenegro, Croatia, and Republika Srpska have been modernized. The Ibar highway is now much safer to drive and roads around Mount Kopaonik have been fixed. Four kilometres of road between Nis and Dimitrovgrad have been built and the entire project documentation has been completed, as well as the documentation for the Sumadija highway. So, more than 1,000 kilometres of roads in Serbia have been built or modernized.
On improving railway transport:
The bridge near Tomasevac has been completed and works have been launched on a bridge near Ostruznica, damaged during the NATO bombing in 1999. Tunnels have been rebuilt on the railroad between Nis and Dimitrovgrad as well as the railway station in Dimitrovgrad. A lot of work has been done on the Belgrade-Bar railroad as well. Around 200 repaired freight wagons have been commissioned and state-of-the-art maintenance equipment has been procured. Also, many bills originating from this ministry have been passed. The parliament will soon discuss a railway bill, postal bill, and a bill on roads.
Tender for the Prokop railway station in Belgrade:
A tender for the Prokop railway station has been prepared but also for a concession to build a highway between Belgrade and Pozega. Austria has approved a €150 million loan for building a ring road around Belgrade so as to resolve the bottleneck on Serbia’s main corridor. We have also secured funds and launched a tender to build another bridge on the Danube near Beska. Simultaneously, a third lane of the highway running between Pancevo and the Romanian border is being built. All these works must be done quickly unless we want Serbia to disappear from Europe’s transport map as the neighbours are not waiting for us.
On the telecommunications sector:
Calling a tender for Mobtel is our obligation under the new law on telecommunications, which bans the state from having monopoly in this industry. An agency for telecommunications should be set up soon, as an independent regulator. Major international telecommunications companies are interested in taking part in a Mobtel tender. Next week, at the government session, I will request that the government makes a decision on calling a tender to choose a financial adviser for Mobtel so as to finally launch the privatisation of this company.
Unless Serbia starts carrying out capital projects in 2005, we will disappear from the transport map of Europe. While we are negotiating and arguing endlessly, our neighbours, Hungary, Romania, and Bulgaria, are building highways and creating new corridors that link the West and the East. Europe has neither patience nor time to wait on us. Highway corridors are the main artery of contemporary trade and large international companies are carefully measuring the time their trucks spend at our border crossings and their trains wait on our railroads. Our customs is very slow: as many as four ministries are in charge of a single border crossing, instead of one directorate that would enable faster flow of goods and people.
Ways to animate big investment in Serbia:
Concessions are the only way to animate big investment in Serbia. It is true that foreign investors are interested in this market. In all my talks with European officials and representatives of international companies, they assured me that Belgrade is seen as an important regional centre. We can get favourable loans for capital projects but our problem is the fact that we are slow in changing our regulations.
Achievements of the Ministry of Capital Investment:
Despite a hard blow that we received after the budget revision, we have managed to carry out all our plans, and to achieve even more. The 24-kilometre section of the Leskovac-Grdelicka Klisura highway has been completed and 63 kilometres of the Novi Sad-Subotica highway have been upgraded. The second lane of the Belgrade-Beska highway has been opened to traffic and numerous roads built or modernized, including ring-roads and viaducts near Cacak, Gornji Milanovac, and Zajecar. The bridge on the Sava near Ostruznica has been repaired and it will soon be opened to traffic. Highways leading to Montenegro, Croatia, and Republika Srpska have been modernized. The Ibar highway is now much safer to drive and roads around Mount Kopaonik have been fixed. Four kilometres of road between Nis and Dimitrovgrad have been built and the entire project documentation has been completed, as well as the documentation for the Sumadija highway. So, more than 1,000 kilometres of roads in Serbia have been built or modernized.
On improving railway transport:
The bridge near Tomasevac has been completed and works have been launched on a bridge near Ostruznica, damaged during the NATO bombing in 1999. Tunnels have been rebuilt on the railroad between Nis and Dimitrovgrad as well as the railway station in Dimitrovgrad. A lot of work has been done on the Belgrade-Bar railroad as well. Around 200 repaired freight wagons have been commissioned and state-of-the-art maintenance equipment has been procured. Also, many bills originating from this ministry have been passed. The parliament will soon discuss a railway bill, postal bill, and a bill on roads.
Tender for the Prokop railway station in Belgrade:
A tender for the Prokop railway station has been prepared but also for a concession to build a highway between Belgrade and Pozega. Austria has approved a €150 million loan for building a ring road around Belgrade so as to resolve the bottleneck on Serbia’s main corridor. We have also secured funds and launched a tender to build another bridge on the Danube near Beska. Simultaneously, a third lane of the highway running between Pancevo and the Romanian border is being built. All these works must be done quickly unless we want Serbia to disappear from Europe’s transport map as the neighbours are not waiting for us.
On the telecommunications sector:
Calling a tender for Mobtel is our obligation under the new law on telecommunications, which bans the state from having monopoly in this industry. An agency for telecommunications should be set up soon, as an independent regulator. Major international telecommunications companies are interested in taking part in a Mobtel tender. Next week, at the government session, I will request that the government makes a decision on calling a tender to choose a financial adviser for Mobtel so as to finally launch the privatisation of this company.
