Serbia’s road network may benefit from major Chinese investment

Talks between the Chinese Development Bank and the Serbian Government could result in Chinese funding for Serbian highway projects. The Danube coast project and the Corridor 11 highway project have been identified. Some €400-€450 million of Chinese financing could be made available to Serbia for highway projects following the most recent series of discussions. Serbia’s Ministry for Transport is also in talks with Chinese partners for the construction of a series of highway projects.
September 27, 2012 Read time: 2 mins
Talks between the Chinese Development Bank and the Serbian Government could result in Chinese funding for Serbian highway projects. The Danube coast project and the Corridor 11 highway project have been identified. Some €400-€450 million of Chinese financing could be made available to Serbia for highway projects following the most recent series of discussions.

Serbia’s Ministry for Transport is also in talks with Chinese partners for the construction of a series of highway projects. These include 100km of the Belgrade-Cacak, Belgrade-Obrenovac, Preljina-Ljig and Lajkovac-Ljig highway projects, as well as the 100km Pojate-Preljina project. 3366 China Road and Bridge Corporation (CRBC) is the contractor showing strongest interest in the Pojate-Preljina regional highway, while a loan for the project may well come from China's Exim Bank with a repayment period of 18 years.

Serbia’s Ministry of Transport has been carrying out extensive research into the cost of highway construction in the country, with huge variations depending on topography and geology. The Serbian Ministry of Tranport has reported that the cost of construction of highways in Vojvodina county ranges from €1.5-€2.5 million/km, while in Grdelicka Klisura costs range between €10 million and €15 million/km.

Meanwhile, in the mountainous terrain between Ljig and Cacak highway construction costs around €7.5 million/km. However, the straight highway section from Obrenovac-Ljig is also costing around €7.5 million/km. Serbian contractors are building the 12km stretch of highway from Ub-Lajkovac for around €5.8 million/km.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Serbia upgrading infrastructure
    May 2, 2012
    Serbia has managed to reduce the cost of building the Corridor 10 highway by €80 million. These funds will instead be used to pay for upgrades and improvements needed for the second section of the highway project, close to Neradovci. So far some 180km of the Corridor 10 highway has been built over a 40 month time frame. A further 150km of the highway has still to be built. Work on the Corridor 10 motorway is also being financed by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the state budget. Wh
    Read More
  • Serbia upgrading infrastructure
    March 16, 2012
    Serbia has managed to reduce the cost of building the Corridor 10 highway by €80 million. These funds will instead be used to pay for upgrades and improvements needed for the second section of the highway project, close to Neradovci.
    Read More
  • Serbia’s pan-European Corridor X is in the slow lane
    October 23, 2017
    It’s been slow progress on Serbia’s Corridor X project. Gordon Feller reports. Back in the early 2000’s, the European Union undertook an ambitious programme to link the main cities of its south-eastern region. This involved connecting five key seaports – the Greek cities of Patras, Igoumenitsa, Piraeus and Thessaloniki as well as Romania’s Black Sea city of Constanta. Initially the plan involved two motorways across Greece. The first was a new 780km route including a branch to Ormenio on Greece’s north-eas
    Read More
  • Serbia starts in-depth talks with the Chinese for Corridor 11 work
    May 7, 2015
    Serbia has entered into “in depth” negotiations with two Chinese companies for concession contracts along the Corridor 11 motorway between Belgrade and the Montenegrin border. Shandong High Speed Group and the China Road and Bridge Corporation (CRBC) are the two Chinese companies that have passed the pre-qualification process. The project value has not been mentioned. Serbian vice president Zorana Mihajlovic said that the Chinese have requested guarantees for transport and Serbia is considering this a
    Read More

Highlighted Content