September 8 (SeeNews) - Serbia hopes that the U.S. government could make investments worth up to $4 billion (3.4 billion euro) under the White-house brokered agreement on normalisation of economic relations with Kosovo signed last week, Serbian infrastructure minister Zorana Mihajlovic said on Tuesday.
"Based on this economic agreement, we are considering the construction of another motorway, from Bujanovac, through Gnjilane to Strpce, as well as the construction of a railway via Merdare to Pristina," Mihajlovic said in a press release.
Serbia is also in talks with the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) for financing the construction of sections of a motorway linking Nis to Pristina after the country already ensured financing for the Nis-Plocnik section, Mihajlovic said.
The president of Serbia's Chamber of Commerce, Marko Cadez, said earlier that DFC also intends to introduce a guarantee scheme for the support of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Representatives of the institution will arrive in Belgrade on September 21 to prepare the opening of an office in the Serbian capital.
On September 4, Serbian president Aleksandar Vucic and Kosovo prime minister Avdullah Hoti signed in Washington, D.C. a U.S.-brokered agreement on the normalisation of economic relations, committing to develop motorway and railway connectivity. The agreement, signed by the U.S. separately with Belgrade and Pristina, envisage U.S. support for the construction of a motorway and railway linking Nis to Pristina, while Kosovo will join the "mini-Schengen" zone, an economic area comprising Serbia, Albania and North Macedonia announced in October 2019.
($ = 0.848042 euro)