The Chinese and the Millennium Team company are building EXPO 27: The government is trying to hide where our money will go

17.08.2023.

Link to the original article: https://nova.rs/vesti/politika/kinezi-i-firma-milenijum-tima-grade-expo-27-vlast-pokusava-da-sakrije-gde-ce-otici-nase-pare-foto/

Representatives of the Serbian government, led by Aleksandar Vučić, have been intensively advertising the construction of the National Stadium and the Expo Center, or the future Belgrade Fair, in recent days. However, details about who will build it all, how much the contracts are worth, who the contractors and subcontractors are, have been hidden from the public… The “Nova” team was on site in Surčin, where preparatory work is underway, and discovered that a Chinese company has been selected as the contractor. Its subcontractor appears to be a company owned by “Millennium Team”, a company close to the SNS.

Aleksandar Vučić recently revealed during his speech that a contract was signed with “Belgrade on Water” for the location of the Belgrade Fair on March 16 , and the public knows practically no details about it. At the same conference, he presented projects that include line infrastructure, a national football stadium, facilities for the future fair and the international specialized exhibition Expo 2027. And while he was informing the public that Belgrade would have one of the most beautiful stadiums in Europe and the Expo, preparatory work was already underway, and the contract for them had apparently already been signed. It was known who the contractor and subcontractor were. The “Nova” team headed to Surčin, where we discovered at least part of what Vučić did not want to announce. A construction sign was placed on a construction site not far from Belgrade. It says that this is a project “for the construction of line infrastructure for the needs of developing a new area within the framework of the construction of the National Football Stadium on the territory of Surčin”.

This involves carrying out preparatory work for the construction of roads for the development of a new district in the National Stadium zone, which includes “clearing the terrain, removing humus, processing the subsoil, creating a buffer layer of the subsoil, and creating and protecting part of the embankment”. The contract for these works was signed on April 27, and the construction permit was issued on March 16, the same day that the state secretly sold the land of the Belgrade Fair to Belgrade on the Water.

Preparatory works began on May 22 and will last 14 months. According to President Aleksandar Vučić, the contract is worth 98 million euros. “It will be a new city within a city. It will be an expansion of Belgrade not far from the airport. On the other hand, there is already a construction site where we are doing the preparatory works on the first 100 hectares and where a contract worth 98 million euros has been signed,” Vučić said in an interview with TV Hepi.

It is interesting that the contractor was a Chinese company – “Power Construction Corporation of China ltd.”, Belgrade branch. This is a state-owned construction company from China, which, as announced on the e-gateway, provides both investments and financing, and this company will be engaged in the construction of the first two metro lines. It was awarded this job without a tender. This company was engaged in the construction of roads in Serbia, but the contracts concluded with it cannot be seen on the public procurement portal. Most often, jobs for Chinese companies are secured on the basis of intergovernmental contracts, which means without a tender.

At the scene, machines and trucks working to clear the terrain can be seen, as well as the sign of the company “Mostogradnja ing”. This is not the former construction giant, which has since gone bankrupt, but a company that is 100% owned by “Milenijum tim”. As “Nova” wrote in January 2021, “Mostogradnja” and “Mostogradnja ing” entered into a strategic partnership agreement. At that time, the plan was for the company “Milenijum tim” to take over some of the workers from the aforementioned state-owned company and lease its production hall in Batajnica.

Otherwise, it is not a big surprise for the public that this company got the job, since its owner often concluded valuable contracts with the state or companies that are engaged in large projects. The crowning glory of it all was the state’s decision to sell the reputable Jaroslav Černy Institute at an initial price of 2.58 million euros to the Millennium Team and a consortium that includes seven directors of that institute. That there is a certain connection between the SNS and the Millennium Team is also confirmed by the case where the co-owner of the company, Ivan Bošnjak, distributed gifts with the SNS logo to elderly citizens in the SNS premises in Banjica. He was also among the guests at the Vidovdan celebration at the Hotel Jugoslavija organized by the Progressives. This company has been engaged in the “Belgrade on the Water” project from the very beginning. At the end of 2018, they were awarded contracts to build apartments for members of the security services in Niš and Vranje. A document obtained by Nova.rs showed that the company bought 200 hectares of agricultural land near Leskovac from the once large and successful company NAVIP, which went bankrupt. In addition to valuable land with forests and vineyards , the company associated with the owners of the “Milenijum Tim” also bought an artificial lake from the bankrupt company NAVIP . BONUS VIDEO Ivana Pavlović: The government must justify to citizens why we are building a stadium, not hospitals