BELGRADE (Serbia), November 23 (SeeNews) – Serbia's infrastructure ministry said Turkey's Exim Bank has expressed interest in providing financing for the construction of the Belgrade-Sarajevo motorway and rehabilitation of roads in the Raska region, in western Serbia.
Serbia has already prepared the project documentation and needs to get financing from Exim Bank under favourable conditions to carry out the works, infrastructure minister Zorana Mihajlovic said in a statement on Wednesday.
"When it comes to the Belgrade-Sarajevo motorway, the route through Serbia is already known and will overlap with the Corridor XI route from Pozega, where another 60 kilometres to the border with Bosnia and Herzegovina need to be built," Mihajlovic said during a meeting with Exim Bank general manager, Adnan Yildirim, and Turkey's ambassador to Serbia, Tanju Bilgic.
During his visit to Serbia in October, Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Exim Bank can extend loans with an interest rate of 1.6% to Serbia to support infrastructure projects in the country. The bank was previously proposing an interest rate of 6.8%, or 4.5% with a discount, which was unacceptable for the Serbian government, trade minister Rasim Ljajic said back in October.
Mihajlovic said last month the Turkish government plans to provide financing for the overhaul of two roads, connecting Novi Pazar to Tutin and Sjenica, in the Raska region.