Montenegro's Road to Nowhere: The Chinese Built Highway that Nearly Bankrupted a Nation

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[pathfinderreality]

However expensive, this road is a MUST HAVE for Montenegro.
They based their development on tourism and fast, good roads are essential for that. Serbia is already building a highway to Montenegrin border, and when Montenegro finished its part, they will have good connection to mainland Europe. Another essential thing is rebuilding Belgrade - Bar railway. It will not only further connect Montenegro to Europe, but would allow them to revive port of Bar for cargo transport.

[markoozy]

As a montenegrian, i must clarify couple things about ourselves:
First of all, we are not the poorest country in region, however if comparing our national bptu with surrounding countries it is a smallest because of barely 650000 in total population. Comparing to Serbia croatia for example.
About freeway it self, it’s a part of newly constructed freeway(still not completed) belgrade-bar.
Serbian side is completed from belgrade to uzice(think this summer will be completed until preljina).
Free way will meet on boljare(boarder between serbia and mne).
Eventually once everything is completed, trip from capitals belgrade-Podgorica, will be reduced to 4 hours, instead of current good 8, 9 hours trip.
Mne government decided to build most difficult part first, to avoid canyon Moraca, which unfortunately took so many lives in past 65 years, road through canyon doesn’t make forgiveness, small mistake/overlook and you are gonne.
As far as we are notified, remaining part from matesevo till andrijevica will start work on 2025. And scheduled to be completed in 3/4 years period.
Now, europe union doesn’t pay our credit back, our government replaced china’s bank with Europe bank, and it’s all done so that eu protects its own interests in this part of Europe, because Port of Bar, is strategically perfect location for Chinese to have its own private port at the door of eu.
I think, don’t claim, that Chinese wanted to build whole freeway for free in favour to have control over freeway and port of Bar in period of 30/40 years.
So even if this guy here is sarcastic about everything and a bit arrogant, he basically completely failed to do a proper research about subject that he made videos about.
The only truth in this video is that government is definitely corrupt, no matter which politician is on power, because they are all same greedy son of the b…..s.
Cheers

[lehelzelenka]

They solved the biggest problem traveling to Montenegro and that was the Morača canyon. It was the most brutal part of the trip and now you just fly over it quite literally!

[Sarmatian-et]

I drove on it this summer. It is a masterpiece of engineering for sure. You literally go tunnel->bridge->tunnel. At almost no point the road was on solid ground. At times the heights could make you dizzy if you suffer from vertigo.

The big problem is that part that works is just a small fraction of what is needed to actually do its job properly which is to bring Serbian products and tourists to Montenegro. It's still a very long and very tiring drive from northern Serbia to Montenegro. To put it into perspective, Greek coast is almost twice as far as Montenegrin coast from northern Serbia, yet you get there quicker.

You still need a lot of highways built on the Serbian side to make it a fully functioning route and the terrain in southwestern Serbia isn't very flat at all. Not nearly as bad as Montenegro terrain, though.

[ivanlazarevic]

I as Serbian am just happy to see this new road finished to the closest sea to my place.Let me tell you I have driven the old road there and it is a hell of a ride.

[alanjenkins]

So the EU is providing finance to Montenegro to pay off Chinese debt? That is insane.

[doctorbjones]

Honestly I am shocked that this project only cost a billion dollars. I live in California, and we have spent over 10 times that much on our high-speed rail system without building a single mile of track

[Mladjasmilic]

There is one huge benefit - safety.
Stretch of road between Kolašin and Podgorica 😊 - Kanjon Morače, was one of most dangerous roads in this part of the world. Many tunnels, sharp turns, high bridges and fog. Rain can wash away the road, or thick ice to accumulate. Old section of the road was Montenegro lifeline with almost no alternative path.

Highway was overprices, but even this 40km screech saves at least 100 lives in 1st year alone.

[AtWarAndy]

As a Montenegrin, I wanted to clarify a few inaccuracies:
13:35 - Which recent polls have you found indicating that China is more popular than Europe or America?
A poll from a month ago that I found asked the following question:
"The main support of Montenegro in foreign policy should be?"
The results were 54.7% in favor of the European Union, 5.6% the USA, and only 1.8% China.

The loan was indeed denominated in USD, as you said, but it was hedged in 2020 (contrary to what was mentioned in the video that it was not hedged against currency fluctuations).
The hedging deal was reached before the first debt payment was due, enabling the Government to make its first four installments worth $158 million in euros at a lower interest rate.
This arrangement meant Montenegro would pay in euros at an interest rate of 0.88%, instead of in dollars at an interest rate of 2%, as was originally agreed in 2014 when the project was first announced. Consequently, the Government paid the Export-Import Bank of China $25 million (23 million euros) less than if the loan had remained tied to the dollar exchange rate.
Regrettably, the Government of Dritan Abazovic exited the Hedging agreement, meaning that subsequent payments will be made under the old terms (the reason for exiting the agreement is unclear to me).

Regarding the project itself, you were correct to note that Western companies haven't shown interest in working on it. However, what you omitted to mention is that the political West provided no support for this vital project for this small Balkan country, despite offering financial backing to similar yet unprofitable projects in Croatia. Living here, I can affirm that this project is necessary and must be completed. We cannot build a sustainable economy without robust infrastructure. Regarding Chinese companies' involvement, I was and still am against it, but no Western companies or banks showed any interest in financing or working on the project. We had no other alternative.

Regarding the July 2023 talks, they are irrelevant. A technical and corrupt government, which lost its parliamentary support over 10 months earlier, conducted these talks with the Chinese (interestingly, the government of Dritan Abazovic lasted longer in a technical term, without parliamentary support, than in a normal term). With the new government in power, their stance on this issue will soon become clear.

[nemiloszorka]

In Serbia we don't even know how much our new highways (built mostly by Chinese) cost. There is one route, from Novi Sad to Ruma, through Fruška Gora mountain, that was suppose to cost around 150 mil €, when the EU companies did the research, pre-Covid era. EU was willing to grant loans to build this road, but one of the conditions was that EU keeps a track on all of the expenses. Serbia opted for China credit, and now the price of this road is almost 600 mil €. Funny, isn't it ;)

[StevenLockey]

I tried Keeps once.... All my hair fell out and I had an inexplicable urge to make 30 youtube channels 🤣

[elfelganor]

Montenegro looks like the starting map in Cities Skylines. Me spending all my money on Highways XD

[ZvonimirZelenika]

Well, Montenegro is a place of yet another Megaproject that also went crazily over budget and took 25 years to build (and also made little sense before being completed end-to-end) - a railway line connecting the two same points as this highway should when completed (Beograd - Bar railway line). If I got it correctly adjusted for inflation (from 1970s dollars) cost was about 3.5 billion dollars (in todays money) - again, trickiest and most expensive part being in Montenegro (including a bridge that way highest railway bridge in the world for 30 years). It might deserve a Megaprojects video of its own.

[kriegsmarinemne]

As someone who often drives on this highway i must say that this road was something that we needed so much.
The north south road E65 is main traffic artery of Montenegro.It connect us with our main trade partner Serbia.
This first pach of 40km of highway replaces most dangerous and slovest part of E65, trough Platije gorge.
Old road is not Nepal style mounrain road, but its is still too dangerous and slow, esepecialy with big trucks on road.So it got tousends of people killed, with our population of only 600k.
We did not go bancrupt, and next stages of highway are beeing planed.Serbia finished more than half of its sections, with others i diferent parts of planning and construction.
Even those that were against it now say that is was good thing to build it at the thime we did.Because inflation just ate the cost.

[coltringcoltring]

Damn! Only a billion for all that!? Here in The south shore of Montreal in Canada we have a 3.5 km bridge that cost 6 billions and took nearly 11 years to make

[NMY]

If Podgorica airport copped on and got some decent routes, they could get loads of tourists up this motorway to the ski resort in Kolasin during winter. 1 hour from airport to ski resort in a cheap and beautiful country that uses euros - ideal.

[AM-pqrq]

I've actually driven part of the road near the coast. It was absolutely amazing. I felt quite intimidated and disoriented from driving over it at the same time. The highway section ran at dizzying heights, I recall a huge long curved section, it made me feel like floating in the air, almost disconnected from earth which, in a way, you are. It did have some traffic, definitely more than 6000 cars a day, I would estimate. The coastal section that is now being developed does seem to make sense, it is rural roads only with a lot of traffic.

[MobilMobil-kvke]

The city of Chicago essentially GAVE AWAY ITS ROADS. A privately held parking company now owns every parking spot in the city. Existing metered spots saw their prices skyrocket. The parking company then expanded the parking fees into the neighborhoods. And the Chicago police are the parking company’s private enforcement arm. Naturally the details are more complicated but it is a lesson for other municipalities.

[FakeSchrodingersCat]

The fact that it only cost 1 billion is honestly amazing. Look at American or even EU costs for roads and bridges that wouldn't even get you one of these bridge most places.

[twisted_void]

What a spectacular drive it would be if the road was finished.