The Balkan Express

To those inclined to expansion, Hong Kong is much more attractive area. However, the road network of Serbia, the country on the other end of "the Silk Road" is not to be neglected. That is why the British have decided to be the first. The large economic delegation, led by the representatives of London's Chamber of Economy, arrived in Belgrade on June 23rd, the day when the Third European Conference of the Ministers of Traffic was about to begin in Helsinki. Among other things, the gathering in Finland was to decide whether the money, earmarked for the development of traffic in the poor half of the continent by the rich Europe, would once more be spent on the roads in this area. The British could afford the early start because no one had doubts about the final decision of the Conference. The civilized peoples can refuse to communicate with us in all other ways, but they have to pass this way.

All their attempts to bypass us ended with the realization that in order to travel across the Balkans, they have to literally get out of God's blessing into the warm sun. For instance, in 1993, Mr. Anton Pesev, the Macedonian minister of traffic at that time, said: "The project to re-establish the East-West corridor is considered a great priority by all three countries." He made the statement while presenting the plan to reestablish the railroad and road corridor that would start in Bulgaria and, after passing through Macedonia, end in the Albanian seaport of Duress. From there, it is possible to cross to Italy by boat, and continue the trip. This plan was proposed during the time of the sanctions in SRY, when transit through Yugoslavia was forbidden. For this reason, corridor no. 10 (Salzburg-Thessaloniki) which connected the East and the West through Yugoslavia, was erased from the maps at the Second European Conference of the Ministers of Traffic held in Crete in 1994. On that occasion, the road corridors in the Central and East Europe (or, the transitional Europe) that would have priority in terms of investments in the upcoming decade were established. When the feverish search for the way to reconnect the European West and North with the Greek seaports and Istanbul (where the construction called the Euro-Asian bridge stretches over the Bosporus) started, the Macedonians saw their chance. The project required enormous investments due to the fact the roads in that area are bad and the terrain is inaccessible and hard for constructions, especially in Albania. In their negotiations with the powerful investors, the substantially enthusiastic Macedonian, Bulgarian and Albanian lobbies insisted mostly that this connection was considerably shorter than the alternative way across Romania and Bulgaria, and that the roads there are of low quality. "It's worth reconsidering," reasoned the West, "since the road connection with Asia must be reestablished, and who knows how long the sanctions will last."

Meanwhile, sanctions have been suspended for the most part, and the communications along the Sava, the Danube and the Morava are mostly operational. The dilemma of Western investors has thus been resolved, because this route -unlike the others mentioned- goes through the wide river dales, with the serious, although neglected, traffic infrastructure.

Anyone who has ever seen any European highway knows that nothing similar exists in Serbia. The speed limit on the Italian highways was introduced only after it has been realized that it is necessary to occupy the drivers' attention and keep them awake while driving in the straight roads with smooth inclinations and with several lanes in each direction. Restaurants, motels, gas station, parking lots, services and other miscellaneous road items are there by default. Several years ago, the British press caused a scandal when it published the photos of the holes in their roads of which size a Serbian driver would not even notice. Here, however, that which matches the definition of the highway exists only between Belgrade and Nis, but without those attractive and profitable miscellaneous objects. On the road Cacak-Bijelo Polje, which is the part of the corridor 6, traffic jams due to the damaged and narrow road bed are simply unbearable in summer. The widening and reconstruction of the road bed requires 15 million dinars, which nobody has. The Pancevo bridge, located on the section of the corridor 10 which leads through Romania, is in danger of crumbling due to the impossibility of gathering only several million dinars for the reconstruction of the bridge piers. The road engineers estimate that 700 million to billion dinars needs to be collected for the maintenance only. That is the purpose of the toll and the tax of 50 paras per liter of gas that has been imposed from the New Year on. This year, 377 million dinars is expected from the toll. If judged by the average yearly consumption, the tax on gas should bring another billion dinars. However, the Institute for Roads, which designs all the road (re)construction jobs, complains that almost nothing has been paid from that source. Who knows what has been more urgent.

The Serbian Chamber of Economy estimates that 1,060,000 dinars will be invested in the roads, out of which 980 million will be used for the completion of the road Feketic to the Hungarian border, one section of the detour around Belgrade, and 130 million for the repair of the highway Belgrade-Nis and the creation of new development projects. According to the calculations, 50 million dinars remains for all other needs. And at least 300 million dinars is needed only for the maintenance of the regional roads. How is it then possible to take the advantage of the development chance offered by the traffic infrastructure? Our government now deals with the only thing it is skilled for: racketeering. There's no other name for the expenses of customs, sanitary and various other inspections, parking, tolls. Insurance that amount to 865 DM for one trailer which enters SRY at the crossings on the Bulgarian border exits at the Hungarian border crossing Horgos, while it costs only 135 DM for the much longer route across Romania. Along with that goes the cost of the necessary stay at the uncompleted and uncomfortable terminals for the cargo transit traffic which is three times the European average, and the entire procedure drags on so long that it turns out that the way through Romania is not only less expensive, but also faster.

Although it must be nice to make easy money that way, it will not work for long, because some have already chosen to clatter and get mistreated at lower price. Since the country has no money even for the daily bread and water, let alone the construction of modern roads, the concessions seem to be the appropriate way out. This arrangement is typical globally and it is understood that the duty of the concessionaire is to construct the certain road and miscellaneous objects at his own expense within the contracted deadline rather than to exploit all that over 20, 30 or 50 years, and in the end return it to the country in the operable state. Even before the conference in Helsinki, it was announced that the potential concessionaires will be offered all the road sections comprising the European corridors. During the conference, the big and colorful offer made to the British economic delegation included also the traffic infrastructure.

Many things, however, remain unclear: First, part of the concessions has already been distributed once. The concession for the section Nis-Dimitrovgrad was given to the Italian company Palatino Invest in 1991, and the section Novi Sad-Subotica to the French. The concessionaires were lucky that the war broke out and the sanctions were introduced, so they did not have the time to invest. Sooner or later it would come out that their contracts were not valid! According to the then valid law on concessions, each contract had to be ratified by the Serbian Parliament who had to issue the special legal paper, which has never been done.

The obligation of the government to provide accounting to the Parliament is omitted from the new law, so the atmosphere will be more relaxed. The content of the contract will be defined only by the government and the concessionaire, for each individual case, and there aren't too many rules. Maybe it is of some consolation that the government has the duty to announce the international bidding, as opposed to the current principle "now you see it, now you don't".

These days, the decision was to be made on the purpose of the assets from the Fund for the Development of Serbia, which is to gather the income from the forthcoming general privatization. It was said that the priorities are the production for the exports and the traffic infrastructure. The government, thus, intends to invest in the roads seriously. But shouldn't also the concessionaires invest in the roads? That means that the concessionaires will pay the government back in some other way, since it has decreased some of their expenses. In cash, most probably.

All this is considered to be the great chance for local construction companies and industry since big money will be invested here in our country. Everyone is desperately hoping that there will be a place for them too. They have obviously missed to notice the suggestion that the sales tax should be lifted from all the imports based on the joint ventures, and that the rate of 10% that is to be paid on the purchases of our equipment is to remain. Since our producers are not competitive within Europe neither by prices nor quality or deadlines, what are their hopes exactly?

But, this is not the reason to be desperate yet, maybe there will be jobs on the construction of the road Nis-Pristina-Pec-Cakor, which is to join the future highway Belgrade-Bar. This undertaking was announced by President Milosevic on the occasion of his recent visit to Kosovo. Since he has seen how easily the world has bypassed his traffic golden vein, he has decided to start offering the alternative directions. First of all, there is the modernization of the international road E-80; since this road is not included in Helsinki's corridors, it cannot count on the intensive support from the governments, companies and financial institutions gathered around the Helsinki conference. Also, the landscape in question is considerably unfriendly, so that a kilometer of road would cost between 5 and 7 million dollars and a kilometer of the highway through Vojvodina costs less than three. Maybe the president knows something that we don't. Maybe this idea counts on the ongoing chaos in Albania which practically blocks the corridor 8. This corridor is not merely the alternation for the transit through Yugoslavia, but it is also the most rational connection between the southern Italy and Greece. With this move, Milosevic solves the problem, and instead of the modest seaport of Duress, offers the much more decent and sophisticated port of Bar. Pro-governmental media are full of the stories that even Ancona is not far from Bar by the ferry, and what is 19 hours of sailing anyway? Is this affection for the "antique people" resulting from the gratitude for the successfully completed sale of the Serbian postal service? In any case, in the honor of this imaginative idea, the tax of 50 paras on the liter of gas will increase to the whole dinar. Simply, even roads are no longer for free.