PM did not expect so much resistance to "modernization"

PM did not expect so much resistance to "modernization"

BELGRADE -- Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic on Tuesday in parliament presented a draft special law ("lex specialis") that would regulate the Belgrade Waterfront project.

He told MPs that "many governments before this one" spoke about the capital's "descent to its rivers," while his cabinet was "at last able to make it happen."

Vucic specified that the entire project will be finalized "in 15 years," but stressed that Belgrade will as soon as in three or four years have "a much prettier face."

Works to build two residential towers are planned for this summer, he continued, "while work will be done in parallel on the Belgrade Tower, a shopping mall and a hotel." Designs for these are expected on May 2016, while construction should begin in the summer of that year, he said.

Vucic said that the design and construction of the Belgrade Waterfront "should include as many Serbian companies as possible, as well as distinguished architects, urban planners, and get the building material in Serbia - for example, steel from Smederevo's Zelezara"

"That will be a condition that will be in the contract as well and that will be respected in agreement with the Arab investor," he was quoted as saying.

The prime minister promised that "the state and the people will both gain from the project," while the money "will not go to tycoon pockets."

Vucic explained that 179 out of 246 buildings slated for removal have so far been removed from the area of the future Belgrade Waterfront, and that RSD 51 million was spent to compensate 86 families that also had to leave. He said this decision was in line with the Constitution, but that the citizens in question "had the...