Chinese visit Serbia to discuss Belgrade-Thessaloniki canal

BELGRADE A Chinese delegation will visit Belgrade on Friday concerning the creation of a feasibility study for the Danube-Morava-Vardar ship canal. This is according to Serbia's Natural Resources, Mining and Spatial Planning Minister Milan Bacevic. Chinese visit Serbia to discuss Belgrade-Thessaloniki canal "They have done a lot based on the documents we provided. We continue to work on the feasibility study together and I am certain that the document will be completed before people go on holidays. Based on the study, we will choose if and when to start the Danube-Morava-Vardar project," he told daily Vecernje novosti. When asked if the Russians had objections to the work on the South Stream pipeline being behind the schedule, the minister said that "they have nothing to object to since they have not completed projects themselves, just as we have not finished our work." "The project documentation is nearing completion. That is what the head of Srbijagas (Serbia's public natural gas company) has told me. During the meetings in Moscow, we agreed that Gazprom would fund the realization of the whole project in Serbia, and Serbia would return its share from the transit tax. So we will not have any expenses during the construction of the pipeline, and we will employ almost all of our construction resources," Bacevic explained. He confirmed that Serbia was looking for a strategic partner for Smederevo-based Zelezara steel mill and that Russia's UralVagonZavod had not officially given up on the steel mill “but their interest has dwindled for reasons that are not quite clear to him”. “The Serbian government has accepted to finance the Zelezara employees but that does not mean that we have stopped looking for a strategic partner. There are companies who are interested and I will discuss the issue in Russia in the next several days,” Bacevic stressed. (B92) Tanjug

Chinese visit Serbia to discuss Belgrade-Thessaloniki canal

"They have done a lot based on the documents we provided. We continue to work on the feasibility study together and I am certain that the document will be completed before people go on holidays. Based on the study, we will choose if and when to start the Danube-Morava-Vardar project," he told daily Večernje novosti.

When asked if the Russians had objections to the work on the South Stream pipeline being behind the schedule, the minister said that "they have nothing to object to since they have not completed projects themselves, just as we have not finished our work."

"The project documentation is nearing completion. That is what the head of Srbijagas (Serbia's public natural gas company) has told me. During the meetings in Moscow, we agreed that Gazprom would fund the realization of the whole project in Serbia, and Serbia would return its share from the transit tax. So we will not have any expenses during the construction of the pipeline, and we will employ almost all of our construction resources," Bačević explained.

He confirmed that Serbia was looking for a strategic partner for Smederevo-based Železara steel mill and that Russia's UralVagonZavod had not officially given up on the steel mill “but their interest has dwindled for reasons that are not quite clear to him”.

“The Serbian government has accepted to finance the Železara employees but that does not mean that we have stopped looking for a strategic partner. There are companies who are interested and I will discuss the issue in Russia in the next several days,” Bačević stressed.