Montenegro Signs Contract With Chinese Company to Build Coastal Highway

Montenegrin government and Shandong International Economic & Technical Cooperation Group representatives in Podgorica. Photo: Government of Montenegro

According to the government, the company will build 16 kilometers of a new highway between the coastal towns of Budva and Tivat, and the 53-million-euros' worth project should be finished in two years.

Outgoing Prime Minister Dritan Abazovic said the project was financed from the budget and from 14 million euros credit from the European Investment Bank.

"This is only the first in a series of projects concerning the coast, which should facilitate traffic. This construction was urgent, as in the summer tourist season more than 30.000 vehicles daily pass between those two towns," Abazovic told a press conference.

Shandong International Economic & Technical Cooperation Group's representative in Montenegro, Yao Lu, said the project will improve traffic infrastructure on the coast.

"With the support of the Montenegrin government and the embassy of China, we will continue to take advantage of technological advantages in order to finish the project with quality within the deadline," Yao Lu said.

In December 2019, BIRN published an interactive map in which 135 Chinese-linked projects in the Balkans worth more than 32 billion euros were identified.

In May 2022, a BIRN investigation showed a lack of transparency in the Chinese company's involvement in a 20-million-euro contract to lay tram lines in the Bosnian capital, Sarajevo.

In June 2021 the authorities in Bosnia's Sarajevo Canton awarded the contract to a consortium of China Shandong International Economic & Technical Cooperation Group and China Railway No.10 Engineering Group Co, but the Sarajevo authorities refused to...