Montenegrin President Milo Đukanović said that Chinese investors are interested in continuing the construction of the highway to the port in the city of Bar.
At the ninth summit of the leaders of China and the countries of Central and Eastern Europe, held online, the president addressed Chinese companies interested in cooperating with Montenegro. The discussion mentioned the proposal to build the highway.
“By carefully listening to their interests, it becomes clear that there is a desire to continue cooperation on building the road through Montenegro to the port in the city of Bar, as well as developing a logistics and industrial zone in its vicinity. Such a project will give a strong boost to a faster economic recovery in the post-coronavirus period and will better connect Montenegro with neighboring and foreign countries,” Đukanović added.
He did not specify how the project to continue construction of the road will be financed, given that Montenegro is already heavily indebted due to its debt to China’s EXIM Bank for the Smokovac-Mateševo section, amounting to more than 800 million euros.
According to him, strengthening cooperation with Chinese institutions and companies means increasing exports of high-quality Montenegrin products to the market of the People’s Republic of China, and establishing exchanges of students, artists, scientists, and cultural workers.