October 19 (SeeNews) - The lack of a direct railway link to landlocked Kosovo is constraining growth at Montenegro's seaport of Bar, Montenegro's transport minister Osman Nurkovic has said.
The only route for carrying cargo by rail from Kosovo to Bar passes through Serbian territory and Belgrade blocks it by not recognising the certificates issued by the Kosovo authorities, Nurkovic said during a panel discussion at the business leaders’ Summit100 gathering in Skopje, Macedonia held earlier this week.
Serbia does not recognise Kosovo's independence.
The Montenegrin government is willing to invest in the development of Bar port but there is no point in doing it due to the lack of proper railway infrastructure, Nurkovic said at a discussion panel on liberalisation of cargo transport links between the countries of Southeast Europe (SEE).
The issue is purely political and shows that political will is needed to solve economic problems, Nurkovic said.
Nurkovic told SeeNews on the sidelines of the summit that Chinese and Arab investors are interested in the privatisation of a stake in Luka Bar [MNG:LUBA], the operator of the port of Bar, but the government needs to set aside some of its assets and focus on the privatisation of the core activity of the company.
In December, OT Logistics placed the sole bid in a tender for the sale of 30% of Luka Bar, offering 8.52 million euro ($10million) for the stake. In January, the Polish company also submitted the sole bid in a tender for 51% of state-owned railway freight operator Montecargo, offering 2.5 million euro and committing to a 17.45 million euro investment programme.
However, in April, Nurkovic said that the government had terminated the talks for the sale of Luka Bar and Montecargo to OT Logistics as the selected privatisation model was not in the best interests of the seller.
($ = 0.845374 euro)