May 18, 2018 - Montenegro expects approximately 60 million euro in grants at the Governmental Presidents’ Summit in London, for a priority segment of the detour road in Budva at the Adriatic-Ionian corridor and a further investment package in the railway sector, where most of the funds would be allocated for the infrastructure for the rail-line Bar-Vrbnica, said the state secretary at the Ministry of Traffic and Maritime Angelina Živković within the Summit of the EU-Western Balkans in Sofia.
Zivkovic, as announced by the Ministry of Traffic and Maritime Affairs, once again pointed to the promotion of the projects within the Adriatic-Ionian Corridor and the technical support Montenegro receives from the EU Investment Fund Facility for the Western Balkans to raise the level of the projects' maturity.
The so-called Blue Highway, she noted, had a significant spot in the Sofia Declaration as well. Zivkovic met interested international financial institutions, donors and the private sector, and that the International Finance Corporation, as the leading Advisor to the Government of Montenegro, is working to analyze, evaluate and model conditions to valorize and realize public-private partnerships at Montenegrin airports in Podgorica, Tivat, and Berane. Therefore, the tender documentation and the international tender should be expected soon.
She also spoke about the implementation of an already approved package of grants and loans of 20 + 20 million euro for the railway sector until 2023.
As a particularly significant step forward in transport policy and dialogue in this sector, Živković also highlighted signing the contract on the transport community by the President of the Government in Trieste in 2017, which would make the Western Balkans region more rapid in transition and integration, harmonization with the EU legal framework , a higher level of investment in physical infrastructure and reform measures, which should ultimately lead to the facilitation of transport and trade.
The Bulgarian Transport Minister Ivajlo Moskovski, Regional Development Minister Nikolay Nankov, Macedonia's Transport Minister Goran Sugareski, Kosovo's Minister of Infrastructure Pal Lekaj, and representatives of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and European Investment Bank, spoke on this panel as well.
Text by Z.N., on May 18th, 2018, read more at CdM
