New Danube bridge to be finished by mid-December

New Danube bridge to be finished by mid-December

The minister announced that the construction will be completed by mid-December.

"The Serbian-Chinese friendship has been built in this bridge, which is also the starting point for other joint activities of the two countries in infrastructure, energy and other fields," Antić told Tanjug.

Antić, who is Serbia's national coordinator for cooperation with China, thanked Serbian and Chinese workers, adding that domestic companies are in charge of 45 percent of works on the new bridge.

The bridge will be finished before the summit of China and 16 Central and Eastern Europe countries in Belgrade mid-December, Antić said, stressing that this is a very important event for Serbia and that it expects a lot from the summit in terms of strengthening of partner relations with China and regional countries.

The summit will discuss realization of regional projects in cooperation with China, such as modernization of the Belgrade-Budapest rail line, Antić said.

Wang Chao, Chinese vice foreign minister and secretary-general of China-Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) Cooperation Secretariat, who toured the bridge along with Minister Antić and Chinese Ambassador to Serbia Li Manchang, announced that China is ready to step up cooperation and increase the number of realized joint infrastructure projects with Serbia.

Wang said that the bridge over the Danube River is an example of good cooperation between the two countries.

This is a great breakthrough in the Serbia-China cooperation in the field of infrastructure, he said, adding that this clearly shows that the two countries have successful cooperation in all fields.

The construction of the bridge, which is 1,482 meters long, 29 meters wide and 22.8 meters high, with six lanes, is mostly financed by a loan provided by the Chinese Exim Bank.