PM meets with representatives of Chinese companies

PM meets with representatives of Chinese companies

Vučić's meetings today touched on the railroad, while agreement on the subject is expected as he confers with Chinese counterpart Li Keqiang.

Vučić today talked with representatives of CRCC, CNEEC Machine Corporation, and ZTE Corporation.

"You know that most of our roads are being built by Chinese companies. We spoke with representatives of the CRCC, which should build the railroad Belgrade-Budapest and I expect this to be agreed on tomorrow with Prime Minister Li Kequiang," Vučić said.

He added that there was an agreement to build fast tracks of 300 km per hour - "and we said we had two limitations":

"The first is that we do not have time to wait, and that construction cannot last ten years. Our request is that it takes up to three years, and the Chinese side pledged to adhere to this deadline. Another problem are state guarantees. Therefore, we asked for a number of different concepts - public-private partnership, concessions and other means, so as to burden the public debt as little as possible."

Vučić added that the final decision will be made on Wednesday, and added:

"I said that I cannot go back to Belgrade without the promise of Prime Minister Li that he will visit Belgrade and organize a gathering of the Central and Eastern European 16. That would be the biggest gathering in our country in the last 30-40 years."

He noted that if the Chinese prime minister accepted this proposal, he could also open the Zemun-Borča bridge in Belgrade, "while we could at the same time sign a contract with the Hungarian side and start building the railway by spring."

Vučić and members of the delegation also spoke with Chinese businesspeople about the development of Serbia's telecommunications network and possible cooperation with Telekom Srbija when it comes to the 4G network, the industrial zone in Stublenica, the power plant complex Kolubara, and their interest to invest in the energy system of Serbia.

CNEEC President Jin Chunsheng said that the talks on Tuesday were "efficient and concrete."

"We talked about three projects that will be implemented in three distinct phases," he said, and specified that these concerned the Industrial Zone Stublenica-Ub on which a contract was signed in January and master plan produced.

Work there should begin in the spring of next year and there are plans to create between 10,000 and 15,000 jobs and realize investments worth about USD 1.2 billion.

"We gave the Serbian prime minister a technical proposal to reconstruct the Veliki Crljeni power plant, we call it Kolubara A. We have started talks on a possible interest in Kolubara B," he said.

The CNEEC president identified the third project as a letter of intent to invest in companies IMR, DMB and IMT, three mechanical industry factories:

"CNEEC is a machine corporation, the largest tractor manufacturer in China and we are interested to, under the Serbian brand and with our new technology, manufacture tractors in Serbia."

It was previously announced that the Serbian delegation will have meetings with representatives of ten major Chinese companies, "and tour one" during the two-day visit, while it was also "indicated that Chinese companies are showing great interest in developing their business in Serbia."