At this moment Serbia and China have joint projects worth USD 6 billion, Serbian Prime Minister Ana Brnabic said on Monday in Kostolac.
She spoke during the groundbreaking ceremony for a new block in the Kostolac Thermal Power Plant in eastern Serbia.
The building of the Kostolac B3 block represents “the biggest investment in the domestic energy sector in the last three decades,” Brnabic said, according to her remarks published by the government.
The prime minister announced she would meet with her Chinese counterpart in Budapest, Hungary to sign two new contracts – on the construction of the Obrenovac-Belgrade heating plant and on the construction of Corridor 11 Preljina-Pozega.
Minister of Mining and Energy Aleksandar Antic pointed out that this was “a significant day for Serbia, which shows that we are continuing the work on developing its power system, but also that we have all the prerequisites for economic growth.”
“We have all the permits and this will be the most modern plant according to the highest ecological standards. That is, after three decades, the largest building we are building in Serbia, and the energy sector is the sector with the highest investments, which is worth almost EUR 3 billion,” he said.
According to Antic, the energy system in Serbia is stable, and that today there are about a thousand megawatts in Serbia, which shows the energy independence of our country.
Acting Director General of Serbia’s public electric power utility EPS Milorad Grcic pointed out that this was “a great day” not only for the company “but for the entire economy in the country – because the entire region is now becoming a large and active construction site, and the new block will mark the expansion of EPS’s capacity for five percent.”
The total value of the investment is, as he pointed out, USD 715 million, with both blocks of the Kostolac Thermal Power Plant being modernized, and the desulphurization process was successfully completed.
Vice President of Chinese Machinery Engineering Corporation (CMEC) Tong Zigang said that this company will respect Serbian laws as well as local customs.
Chinese Ambassador Li Manchang conveyed the congratulations of the representatives of the Chinese Parliament on the occasion of the beginning of this project, the Serbian government said.
Source; B92
