On Thursday, November 26, the Serbian government announced that it would start work on the Belgrade metro in the capital by the end of 2021, saying that it had signed an agreement with France to do so and that most of the work would be done by Alstom and other French companies.
Belgrade’s metro plans have been talked about by locals for decades and have been delayed. The plan, which includes at least two main lines, will make daily transportation easier for the 1.7 million Belgrade residents who have become accustomed to traffic jams and air pollution.
France’s Acting Minister of External Trade and Commerce, Andreas Riester, praised the cooperation between France and Serbia, saying that the metro project, together with the Belgrade Waste Treatment Center project won by Suez and the Belgrade Airport project won by the Mannheimer Group, “reflects the common will of both France and Belgrade”. In addition to Alstom, leading French companies such as Schneider Electronics will also join the project, and Alstom alone will cost no less than 530 million euros, with the first line being offered at 1.83 billion euros. In order to implement the project as a whole, France has provided Serbia with financial loans, foreign trade credit guarantees, and funds from the French Development Agency, etc. However, the contract for the related civil engineering works was awarded by Serbia. However, the contract for the civil works was signed between Serbia and China Power.
The Chinese, who are competing with the French side, had “almost squeezed out” the French proposal in 2019 with a proposal of 4 billion euros, led by China’s CNR. In fact, France and Serbia had already agreed in 2011 to cooperate in writing to build a metro line in Belgrade around 2017,” AFP said, citing unnamed sources. The Balkan country of Serbia has become China’s bridgehead to Europe, and the Chinese side has been providing Serbia with huge investments in infrastructure, energy and security for decades,” AFP quoted an unnamed source as saying.
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