Page 51 - BNE_magazine_06_2020 Growers

bne June 2020 Southeast Europe I 51
the port to the Slovenian capital Ljubljana, then on to Central Europe. At €1bn this is the country’s most costly infrastructure project ever.
In a sign that the pandemic has not altered Ljubljana’s commitment to
this long-term investment, on May 8 state-run company 2TDK selected ten firms and tie-ups to proceed to the next stage of the tender to expand the line. The bidder eventually selected will be responsible for building a second line of the railway that winds its way through the rugged countryside, hugging the side of mountains and through narrow rocky channels, all contributing to the high cost of the project that has made it a controversial decision for Ljubljana.
It faced strong opposition mainly because of questions over transparency and the huge cost. A 2017 referendum endorsed the project, but the result was later annulled after a successful appeal by Vili Kovacic, a pensioner and leader of the Taxpayers Standing Our Ground group. Kovacic claimed irregularities such as using budget funds to finance the referendum campaign influenced the outcome of the vote. Slovenia’s then prime minister, Miro Cerar, stepped down immediately after the Supreme Court announced its verdict in favour of Kovacic.
Slovenia then held a second referendum on the €1bn project. This time there was an extremely slim majority against it, but turnout was so low that it missed the 20% threshold for the referendum to be successful, so the project eventually went ahead.
In Croatia, Minister of the Sea, Transport and Infrastructure Oleg Butkovic talked in December 2019 of a “renaissance” on the Croatian coast, with plans to invest €100mn in Croatian ports.
At the largest Croatian port, Rijeka, the Croatian subsidiary of Manila-based International Container Terminal Services Inc. (ICTSI) announced in 2019 it is investing in new infrastructure to turn Rijeka into the first terminal in the northern Adriatic that can accommodate ships of up to 20,000 teu.
The Port of Rijeka’s strategic goals
for 2030 are to “exploit its potential and advantages of its position on the Mediterranean and Baltic-Adriatic TEN-T corridors, remove bottlenecks and upgrade the previously identified infrastructure projects within the European Union transport sector,” says a document published by the port authority. Other options it plans to explore are further expansion
of the port, building a container terminal on the nearby island of Krk and new infrastructure to receive large cruise ships.
Meanwhile, Italy’s VGate Srl outlined proposals back in 2018 to build a multi- purpose terminal 2.3 km offshore at the port of Chioggia, which comes under the Port of Venice authority.
In addition to the potential major Chinese commitment to Trieste, Hungarian government decided in
2019 to pick Trieste for its new port and logistics base at a cost of €60mn-100mn. Currently Koper is the main maritime gateway for Hungary, handling over three-quarters of its container trans- shipments.
Not a zero-sum game
However, Twrdy believes Hungary’s decision to build the logistics base in Trieste doesn’t harm Koper – just as
the Koper-Divaca project is still viable whether China choses to develop Trieste or not. In fact, Twrdy says in a telephone interview with bne IntelliNews, given the efforts to develop both ports, “maybe it will be even more interesting to build the missing link between Koper and Trieste, and connect this platform with the second track [of the Koper-Divaca railway] and with Slovenian Railways.”
Just a few months after the MoU between China and Italy was signed,
a Slovenian delegation visited China in June 2019 to sign up to the BRI. During the same trip, a co-operation agreement was signed between Luka Koper and China’s Ningbo Zhoushan Port Group, with a focus on intermodal transportation. Ningbo is the largest operator of ports in Zhejiang Province on the East China Sea coast.
Chinese companies have also expressed an interest in the Croatian ports of Rijeka and Zadar.
“I don’t see a clear sign that the Chinese government and Chinese companies favour one of the regional ports over the others,” says van der Putten. “Just like Piraeus is not the only Mediterranean or European port in which COSCO
has invested, it seems that China is interested in developing at least Rijeka, Koper and Trieste as potential hubs on the route between China and Central Europe. If none of these ports possesses a definite advantage over the others,
a decisive factor in the future could be Chinese FDI in a terminal (should such an opportunity arise: not co-financing of port improvement but rather acquiring a controlling stake in a container
or other terminal) and/or a close diplomatic alliance at the national government level.”
The North Adriatic ports are also significant due to their position at the southern end of the Baltic-Adriatic Corridor, one of the most important trans-European road and railway axes across Central Europe.
Even before the current crisis, it was unclear where Chinese investment in the area would be directed. However, says Twrdy, “They definitely will come to Trieste or near to Trieste because the cargo that goes from the ports of the North Adriatic to Central Europe is the shortest way.”
According to Twrdy, the decision is likely to depend on the infrastructure both in the port itself and in the hinterland. Currently the latter is better in Italy, as the second track of the Koper-Divaca line is not yet built. However, she adds, “both ports [Trieste and Koper] are in great positions,
have great potential and the Chinese will definitely have a big influence ... because they have a lot of cargo to be transported. Maybe if one port is too small they will choose two or three in the North Adriatic to be their gateways to Europe.
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