Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski announced a historic infrastructure development push that will lead to six highways being built at the same time.
I am happy to say that we have finally closed the Kichevo-Ohrid highway financially, thanks to a consortium created by domestic banks, after the Chinese lenders left us out to dry, in a manner of speaking. We have rounded up the Corridor 8 and Corridor 10d projects financially for this year, also thanks to the domestic banks. Now we are looking on the international financial market. Next week, on Tuesday, we will ask external lenders for a framework amount for the end of the project, which will provide us with the money until the end, Prime Minister Mickoski said during a TV interview.
The Prime Minister said that the latest move forward in developing the road infrastructure is the awarding of a contract for the Skopje – Blace highway, that will link Macedonia to Kosovo.
The project was left with dubious land expropriation and, even more tragically, the previous Government did not even have finances planned for the project. And now when they accuse me of having no money for this or that project, I ask them, what did you do? We closed that project, we have an agreement, and finally, after many years, a Macedonian company is building a highway. A Macedonian company – Granit – won a contract from the European banks, Mickoski said.
We are almost finished with Bukojcani-Kicevo, that is practically the junction between the Sinohydro Ohrid – Kicevo project and the Bechtel and Enka project. The procedure is completed, we expect that highway to start as well. So practically at one point we will have five to six sections. We will have the Tetovo – Gostivar section, Gostivar – Bukojcani, we will have the Bukojcani – Kicevo section, the junction between the Sinohydro and Bechtel and Enka highway, the Kicevo – Ohrid highway will be completed, the initial phase Blace – Skopje, and an advanced phase of the Prilep – Bitola highway. I expect that in the first half of next year we will have about ten kilometers launched on the Prilep – Bitola section. That has not been done historically in Macedonia, that six highway sections are being built at the same time, emphasized Prime Minister Mickoski.
