BELGRADE (Serbia), October 9 (SeeNews) – Serbia and China plan to incorporate next month a joint venture for the construction of a 300 million euro ($333 million) industrial park in Belgrade, a Serbian government official has said.
The industrial park will be the most modern in Southeast Europe and its construction will start at the beginning of 2020, Serbia's minister without portfolio in charge of innovation, Nenad Popovic, said in a government press release on Tuesday.
"The industrial park is planned to be developed in three phases. The first phase of the project will cover an area of around 60 hectares and will include an international trade centre and an adminstration building including a one-stop service centre," the deputy president of the Serbian unit of China Road and Bridge Corporation (CRBC), Cou Cesi, said in a video file posted on the website of Serbian news agency Tanjug.
The area of the industrial park will reach 330 hectares upon completion of the project. It will be located in the Belgrade suburb of Borca, near the Pupin bridge over the Danube River in Belgrade, Cesi said.
Popovic first announced the industrial park project back in April, during the visit of a Serbian delegation to Beijing's second Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation. Back then Popovic signed agreements for the development of the project, the establishment of a joint venture for its execution, as well as a business plan, saying construction works were expected to start by the end of 2019.