The plan for the future of “Serbia 2025”, presented by Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic and Prime Minister Ana Brnabic, envisions the development of water transport through investments worth almost 300 million euros, says Minister of Construction, Transport and Infrastructure Tomislav Momirovic.
In the text published in the annual bulletin of the Port Management Agency, the Minister announced that the funds would be invested in the construction of the new Port of Belgrade and expansion of the capacity of the ports of Bogojevo, Sremska Mitrovica and Prahovo, as well as in the development of the intermodal terminal in Batajnica.
He stated that the additional capacities of the ports will contribute to the improvement of the range of services they offer, the increase in the volume of cargo transshipment, competitiveness and the creation of new jobs.
Momirovic emphasized that the priority of the Government of Serbia and the Ministry of Construction is the consistent implementation of the “Serbia 2025” program, because it covers all key infrastructure projects.
“It is equally important that with every kilometer of the highway built and the modernization of the railway, we accelerate the development of water transport in the coming period, so that Serbia becomes a multimodal hub of this part of Europe,” says the minister.
Momirovic said that the capital project of the new port in Belgrade will significantly bring us closer to fulfilling that goal.
In that way, the Minister specified, the port of Belgrade will connect road, railway and air roads with the entire region and with some of the most important TEN-T corridors, such as the Orient / East-Mediterranean Corridor, the Mediterranean Corridor and the Baltic-Adriatic Corridor.
He emphasized that the vision of the Government of Serbia and the relevant ministry is for Serbian ports to become the initiators of economic development in their hinterlands.
That is why, says the Minister, it is necessary to direct the work towards further creation of conditions for safe navigation and to enable the ports in Serbia to take the leading multimodal position in Southeast Europe.
In the annual bulletin dedicated to freight and passenger traffic in the context of the corona virus pandemic, Momirovic stated that at a time when all world economies are facing the greatest challenges in modern history, water freight plays an important role in responding to the task of preserving public health and economy.
“Safe shipping and delivery of vital goods such as medical equipment, food, energy, raw materials and industrial components have contributed to maintaining international trade, and thus global business,” Momirovic said.
He states that the fact that cargo traffic on rivers in Serbia increased in the conditions of the pandemic undoubtedly indicates that water transport is a branch of transport that we can rely on during crisis periods, but also that it is necessary to continue developing our ports and investing in their infrastructure, Dnevnik reports.
