Macedonia’s Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Transport AleksandarNikoloski told a World Bank ministerial roundtable in Washington that a major investment cycle of several billion euros is underway in the country in the development and modernization of the corridors. He added that construction and modernization of highway sections, as well as investment in construction of a high-speed railway on Corridor X and a railway connection to the East is in the works. In addition, with the support of the World Bank, modernization of the border crossings with Albania and Bulgaria is moving forward.
“We are lucky that the two Pan-European corridors intersect in our country. It is Corridor X that connects the south of Europe with the north of Europe and it is the longest corridor in Europe. The second corridor is Corridor VIII that goes from west to east, starts in Albania and ends in the port of Odessa in Ukraine and is now considered the second most important security corridor for NATO. We are trying to develop both corridors,” said Deputy PM Nikoloski in his address.
Nikoloski highlighted the capital projects currently being implemented in Macedonia.
“With our partners and friends from the United Kingdom, we are working on the construction of a high-speed railway that should operate at up to 200 km per hour for passenger traffic and 120 km per hour for freight. We have signed an agreement with our Bulgarian neighbors for a joint railway connection on Corridor VIII and are developing this corridor with financial support from the EU and several banks. We are closely cooperating with the World Bank on the local roads project, where we are building local roads in each municipality. We are also working on the modernization of the largest border crossing with Albania, and then the largest border crossing with Bulgaria on Corridor VIII. We are also working on a project with Customs. It is a project for a new one-stop shop, which should enable freight traffic to be much faster and much more efficient,” added Deputy PM Nikoloski.
In his address, Nikoloski noted that work is already underway on a project that should connect Corridor X and Corridor IV in Bulgaria, thus connecting Macedonia to Turkey and the Middle East.
