Page 22 - bne_newspaper_May_25_2018

Weekly Lists
May 25, 2018 www.intellinews.com I Page 22
bne:
Infrastructure
China’s HNA to invest €160mn in Bulgaria’s Plovdiv Airport
UAE companies to build river ports in Serbia
A consortium of China’s HNA and Dutch-registered Plovdiv Air- port Invest BV, which has won the tender for a 35-year concession of Bulgaria’s Plovdiv Airport, will invest more than €160mn in the airport, the transport ministry said on May 18.
HNA-Plovdiv Airport Invest was one of three bidders when Bulgaria launched a tender for the concession in January 2017. Initially, the consortium pledged to invest at least €79.1mn within five years after the concession deal is signed, including on repairs, rehabilitation and maintenance of existing infrastructure and new construction.
However, at a May 18 a meeting between HNA’s representatives and Bulgaria’s Transport Minister Ivaylo Moskov, the company said it will increase the sum and will invest it over a shorter period, the ministry said in a statement.
Companies from the UAE are expected to start building a new river port in Serbia next year, after a memorandum on development projects for river ports was signed by the Serbian government and head of Dubai Port World on May 23, the government reported.
According to Serbia’s Minister of Construction, Transport and Infrastruc- ture Zorana Mihajlovic, companies from the UAE could start building
a new port in Serbia next year. A feasibility study will show whether their investment will be in Novi Sad, Smederevo or Belgrade. She also announced that after 40 years the state will begin to invest in the construction of river ports, with plans to commit over €200mn.
Serbia has become the main target for UAE-based investors in South- east Europe, as President Aleksandar Vucic’s friendship with Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan has brought billions of euros worth of investment and loans to the country.
Gas grid operators from Poland and the Baltic states have signed a cost-sharing agreement on a gas link to connect Poland with Lithuania and further with Latvia and Estonia.
The project is set to plug the Baltic gas network into that of the EU. Brussels is pushing to end the Baltic states’ status of an “energy island”, bequeathed by Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania's recent history inside the Soviet Union.
Infrastructure links to the rest of the EU – to which the Baltic states are only attached via a 140-kilometre strip of land, the Lithuanian- Polish border – are critical for the regional security.
Poland and Baltic states sign cost sharing agreement for gas link