Serbian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Construction, Transport and Infrastructure Zorana Mihajlovic signed an agreement stipulating a EUR 2.7 million grant of for water transport projects with the European Investment Bank (EIB) on Friday, July 12.
The grant will cover the costs of preparing three new projects: improving the navigability of the Sava River, implementation of a hydro-meteorological station system and implementation of the management of water transport from a single VTS centre.
The total value of the three projects is close to EUR 20 million.
“We have signed an agreement stipulating a grant for several important projects, but that’s not all we’re doing together with the EIB,” Mihajlovic said.
She underlined that, two years ago, the Government of Serbia had adopted a strategic orientation toward developing water corridors and that Serbia would develop important water transport project worth EUR 200 million with the EIB.
“We are developing road, rail and air transport as well, but it seems to me that we have never focused so much on water transport projects before,” Mihajlovic added.
She also underlined that it was important that the state has started investing in ports and that the Smederevo port would become operational in March 2020.
“Today, we also talked about the expansion of capacities in another two ports and the water corridors that had been neglected in the past decades,” said Mihajlovic.
Mihajlovic said that railways, roads and air traffic were also discussed at the meeting and pointed out that the cooperation with the EIB was especially successful in the segment of infrastructure.
Source; Serbian Monitor
