The largest capital investment that will be completed in 2023 in Montenegro is the Kotor-Lovćen cable car, which should already in June transport the first passengers from the coast in Kotor to Lovćen, offering them a magnificent view of the entire Bay of Kotor.
Passengers will climb to 12 meters above sea level in a 1.350-minute drive.
The project is implemented as part of a private-public partnership between the Government and a consortium consisting of the Podgorica company "Novi Volvoks" and the Italian "Leitner". As a concessionaire, the consortium will build and use the cable car and related facilities for 30 years, after which it will belong to the state. The goal of the project is to improve the tourist offer, and according to the contract, it will work for at least seven months a year.
The construction of this cable car has been announced for almost 20 years. The first Kotor-Lovćen cable car was built in 1916 by the Austro-Hungarian occupation authorities. After the war, most of the equipment was stolen or destroyed and the cable car was never in operation again, although there were several attempts to build it for tourist purposes.
The most valuable capital investments that will begin this year are the construction of the "Gvozd" wind farm, which is estimated at 82 million euros, as well as the continuation of the "Solari 5000+" project, which foresees the installation of five thousand new mini solar power plants on the roofs of houses and commercial and business buildings. The "Solari 3000+" and "500+" projects, which were started in June last year, should be completed by April.
Both of these projects are implemented by the state-owned Elektroprivreda, and "Gvozd" will be the first state-owned energy project after 40 years. This wind farm should be built and in operation by the end of 2024.
One of the most significant capital projects that should start this year, not in terms of the amount of investment, but in terms of environmental impact, is the heating of Pljevlja, which has been waiting for 40 years since the thermal power plant began operating in this city.
Due to the operation of the thermal power plant, but also a large number of boiler houses and homes that use coal, the air pollution in this city is up to 12 times higher than allowed, and last week those records were also broken. Representatives of Elektroprivreda Crne Gore and the consortium consisting of "Roto-Term Pljevlja" and "Synergy Tech DOO Belgrade" signed in November last year a contract on the heating of Pljevlja, the value of which is 2,5 million euros.
According to the contract, the documentation for the entire project should be completed this year and the first phase of work on the main heat pipe from the thermal power plant should begin. The actual heating of the city would begin at the end of 2024, when the ecological reconstruction of the thermal power plant is completed.
In the course of this year, the main project of the new section of the Montenegrin highway from Mateševo to Andrijevica, with a length of about 24 kilometers, should be completed. Completion of that project, along with the recently completed economic feasibility study, is a condition for Montenegro to continue building the highway and can apply for financing from European investment banks. If these prerequisites are met, at the end of this year, a public call for a contractor could be announced.
The estimated value of the new share, given the large increase in construction material prices last year, is now around 370 million euros. Its construction would take about two and a half years.
The current section of the highway, opened in July after a three-year delay, connects the capital and the village of Mateševo, from where a narrow regional road leads to Kolašin and the connection to the main road to Bijelo Polje and on to Serbia. The new section would connect the highway with the highway Plav-Andrijevica-Berane-Bijelo Polje, that is, it would connect the central part of Montenegro with its northeastern part and would be one step closer to the connection with the highway in Serbia.
In July of this year, Montenegro could receive another completed and long-awaited capital investment - the regional road Kolašin-Lubnice-Berane, but only theoretically because this is the fourth deadline for the completion of that road, which began in 2018 and whose price is through the annexes of the contract increased from 34 to 56 million euros. The main contractor is "Euroasfalt" from Sarajevo, and the official reason for these delays is the discovery of a large amount of water in the tunnel under Bjelasica.
Documentation and projects for the construction of city hospitals in Podgorica, which would relieve the central Clinical Hospital Center, and in Pljevlja, which would replace the existing one built in 1963, should be completed this year. No new hospital has been built in Montenegro in the past 40 years.
The budget for next year, with 24 million euros, envisages the construction of new cable cars and the modernization of ski resorts in Kolašin, Hajla, Cmiljača and Žarski.
90 million is planned for the construction and reconstruction of roads, and the most significant new project is the first phase of the construction of the boulevard from Budva to Tivat.
Serbia: Total investments 4,8 billion euros, for roads and railways about two billion euros
Total public investments in Serbia in 2023 are budgeted at 4,8 billion euros or seven percent of GDP.
On the one hand, investments in healthcare, which increased sharply during the corona pandemic, are being reduced, on the other hand, some large projects such as the bypass around Belgrade to Bubanj potok are being completed this year, but some new projects are also being introduced, such as the construction of the Belgrade metro or of the new bridge over the Sava in Belgrade.
The largest part of the investments will be realized in road and railway infrastructure and the total value of infrastructure projects of importance for Serbia will amount to around 2,2 billion euros (260 billion dinars) this year.
By far the largest individual state capital investment this year will be the construction of the Moravian Corridor, i.e. the highway from Pojat to Preljina, which will connect Corridor 10 and Corridor 11. For the construction of this highway, which is scheduled for completion in 2025, 50,6 .430,6 billion dinars or XNUMX million euros.
Another mega project that will be financed from the budget this year is the beginning of the construction of the Belgrade metro. It is planned to allocate 30 billion dinars or 255 million euros for the metro this year.
The Ruma-Šabac high-speed road should be completed this year, and the continuation from Šabac to Loznica next year. 2023 billion dinars or about 13,3 million euros are planned for this project in 113.
The ring road around Belgrade and its connection to the highway near Bubanj potok should also be completed, and 95,3 million euros (11,2 billion dinars) are planned for this project this year.
For the part of the Corridor 11 highway from Preljina to Požega, 2023 billion dinars, or 19,4 million euros, have been allocated from the budget for 165.
Among the large infrastructure projects this year is 10,6 billion dinars or 90 million euros for the Novi Sad-Ruma road.
The roads Požarevac-Golubac (80 million euros), Niš-Merdare (30 million euros), highway Belgrade-Sarajevo (76,6 million euros) and Valjevo-Lajkovac (46 million euros) will also be built.
For the first time, funds for the construction of a new bridge across the Sava in Belgrade of 4,47 billion dinars or 38 million euros appear in the budget.
One of the biggest investments this year will be the continuation of the high-speed railway from Belgrade to the Hungarian border. 2023 billion dinars or 25 million euros have been allocated for this project in the 212,7 budget.
Among the big projects this year is the construction of communal infrastructure, for which 13,3 billion dinars (113 million euros) are planned, the gas interconnector with Bulgaria for 7,26 billion dinars (62 million euros) and, of course, the National Stadium, for which this year was allocated 7,7 billion dinars (65,5 million euros).
BiH: All eyes on corridor 5C
The construction of a highway on the route of Corridor 5C is at the top of Bosnia and Herzegovina's priorities, the construction of which enables a better connection of the country with the countries of the Western Balkans, as well as with the EU.
Although inflation and price increases have caused various problems, there is encouraging news from the FBiH Highways Company - 2023 could be the key year for the completion of the complete project of Corridor 5C. This year, it is planned to start work on two very important buildings, the Prenj tunnel and the Mostar bypass. So far, 126 kilometers of highway worth 2,32 billion KM have been built, and it should be expected that all 2028 kilometers of Corridor 335C will be completed by 5.
"There are currently seven active construction sites on corridor 5C. The total investment value of the ongoing works amounts to 1,3 billion KM (660 million euros). The largest volume of work, when it comes to highway construction, is carried out in the Zenica Doboj canton," said Elmedin Voloder, director of JP Auto-cesta FBiH.
It is important to mention that three months ago the route of the highway through Brčko was agreed, which will be an integral part of the future highway Belgrade-Sarajevo-Belgrade and Belgrade-Banjaluka. Vojin Mitrović, now the former Minister of Transport and Communications of BiH, said that the highway passing through Brčko will bring a new dimension and the possibility that the district will have an even better position for domestic and foreign investments.
Equally important for the country is the gasification project, but not much progress has been made on that front because, as usual, politics has the last word. Even six years ago, the BiH-Croatia South Interconnection gas pipeline was declared a project of strategic importance. This project should increase the security of supply to consumers, but also enable the gasification of the southern part of Bosnia and Herzegovina, that is, local communities where this energy source was not available until now. The Croatian partner is the company "Plinacro".
In the FBiH Public Investment Program for the period 2022-2024. Among the 132 projects worth 16,7 billion KM (8,6 billion euros), the regional gas pipeline project was included. The partner from the Croatian side has done a large part of the work and the resolution of the situation on the other side of the border is awaited. The route Zagvozd-Imotski-Posušje-Novi Travnik, with a branch to Mostar is in a high stage of preparation. For the Dugopolje-Zagvozd section with a length of 52 kilometers, "Plinacro" carried out studies, solutions and permits.
Officials from Republika Srpska are particularly interested in the implementation of infrastructure projects, the "Buk bijela" hydroelectric plant, the Trebinje airport, but also the construction of a gas pipeline from Serbia to Banja Luka, in which they have the support of the Serbian authorities.
Milorad Dodik, the president of the RS and the SNSD, during the talks on the formation of the government with the coalition partners, highlighted these projects as a condition for an agreement.
"What is crucial for us is to get guarantees that the processes from RS that are important to us will be unblocked. Our ultimate commitment also depends on those guarantees we will receive", said Dodik.
Let us remind you that in May 2021, the foundation stone was laid for the construction of HPP "Buk bijela" on the Drina River, which, as it was said at the time, will be financed with EUR 220 million from the electricity industry of Serbia and RS. The mentioned projects, however, do not have the green light of the BiH Presidency.
Croatia: Investments of over five billion euros
Despite the negative trends at the global level, the Croatian government based its budget for this year on a forecast of mild economic growth of 0,7 percent, mostly on large infrastructure investments that should be financed from EU funds and mechanisms. The plan is to use almost a third more money from these sources this year than last year. Investments in capital projects in the new budget are higher by almost 1,2 billion euros and should reach as much as 5,5 billion euros.
A dose of caution when it comes to these plans is aroused, however, by the fact that last year the state quite failed in spending European money, so the budget rebalancing transferred more than 700 million euros of capital expenditures to this year. These are mostly projects that should have been financed from the past financial perspective, that is, the European budget for the period from 2014 to 2020. This money can be withdrawn by the end of this year at the latest, which is why a more ambitious spending of EU money is planned through 2023, in order to reduce the pace again through the projections for the next two years. A good part of the cause of the delay in withdrawing money from the last seven-year EU budget lies in the lack of professional staff and the inability of the public administration, which to a large extent still rests on old, socialist principles, without too much ambition and creativity. That is why the plans for 2024 and 2025, which predict a slower pace of spending this money, are somewhat understandable. But in the end, it could lead the country into a time crunch again, given that it is already necessary to start spending money from the new seven-year EU budget, as well as from the European Recovery and Resilience Mechanism. From these sources, Croatia has a total of 25 billion euros available in the coming years, which is a big challenge for the state administration.
The recovery mechanism is mostly focused on sustainable development projects, above all in environmental protection and water management, where significant investments in water supply networks are expected, since up to half of the amount of water captured at pumping stations is lost to consumers on water supply systems in Croatia. Large investments are also expected when it comes to projects in the sea, transport and infrastructure sector, in which around 1,26 billion euros should be invested over the next three years. Last year, Croatia recorded the completion of the Pelješki Bridge, a project worth almost 530 million euros, and in the coming period there are big plans related to the modernization of the port and the railway, in which investments of as much as 3,5 billion euros are expected in this decade. Along with the "lowland" railroad Botovo-Zagreb-Rijeka, the priorities are the corridor towards the east of the country, and the construction of infrastructure on two corridors that are part of the Trans-European transport network. The telecommunications infrastructure is also under the same ministry, where the plans are also big, but implementation is slow. European money was approved in 2017 for the project of building a national telecommunications infrastructure, an aggregation network that should enable superfast internet even in areas where there is no commercial interest for it, at the same time as money for the Pelješki Bridge, but the project is still in its infancy. and since the deadline for spending that money is nearing its end, the plan is to finance it in phases, with money from a new financial perspective until 2027. In addition to this, large projects related to increasing resilience to disasters will be phased in, such as the embankment in Kupa, which has also been in the works for years, but there is no major progress, because it is being held back by bureaucratic entanglements and the state's lukewarm approach to the owners of plots of land next to Kupa, who complain because the embankment will block their view of the river.
Over the past two years, Croatia has been forced to make huge unplanned investments by two devastating earthquakes that hit Zagreb and Petrinja in March and December 2020, leaving behind nine dead and tens of thousands of damaged or completely destroyed houses and business buildings, damaged roads, water pipes , sewage... Private houses are being renovated by the state with its own money, with many problems and delays, and a total of more than one billion euros has been approved for infrastructure and public buildings from the European Solidarity Fund. The use of this money did not go according to plan, so the deadline for repairing the damage from the Zagreb earthquake was extended by a year, until June of this year, but unofficial sources say that a total of 683 million euros intended to help Zagreb could eventually be returned to the European coffers. about 200 million.
Among the capital investments that should follow in the coming years, investments in sports facilities have also been mentioned in recent months, and after another medal of the Croatian national football team, the focus is on the construction of football stadiums. The budget for this year does not provide money for this purpose, but in the projections for 2024 and 2025, it will be possible to read that the Government intends to co-finance sports facilities of national interest with more than 13 million euros, and the first steps are expected this year. in that direction of the Croatian Football Association, interested cities and private investors.
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