Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó signed the inter-governmental agreement on the refurbishment of the Budapest-Belgrade railway line with the President of the Chinese National Development and Reform Commission. 85 per cent of the project will be financed from credit provided by China.
“We agreed that we shall implement 85 per cent of the project from credit offered by China; in other words, Hungary will cover 15 per cent from its own resources”, Szijjá said.
166 km of the railway line on Hungarian territory will be modernised, electrified, equipped with new safety devices and also extended with a second track, on which 740-metre-long trains will be able to run. Travel time for passenger trains between the two capitals will decrease to two and a half hours. In addition, the suburban railway system will also be modernised. The costs of the Hungarian section will be more than HUF 470 billion (EUR 1.5 billion).
According to Ministry, the Chinese party would like to see Chinese-made engines and carriages on the Belgrade-Budapest line. The Minister said that he made it clear to his partners that this can only happen if Chinese production bases are set up in Hungary, creating new jobs.
Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic met with Premier of China Li Keqiang to speak about the strengthening of cooperation between the two countries, especially on the implementation of major projects such as the Belgrade-Budapest rail line. ”The Belgrade-Budapest rail line is the most important project for the entire region, adding that the Serbian side, with the support of China, is close to the beginning of construction work on this railway. Belgrade-Budapest railway line must be completed within two years,” Vucic said.
Serbian Ministry of Mining and Energy, China Railway International and China Communications Construction signed a framework agreement for the modernization of 177 km as part as Belgrade-Budapest railway line. Chinese Eximbank will finance the works, with an interested rate of 2%.
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