Why is EXPO so important to Vučić? How the people from Progressive Party are lining their pockets through this project
Link to original article: https://direktno.rs/vesti/drustvo-i-ekonomija/612587/expo-2027-troskovi-korupcija.html
Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić’s statement that he is ready for elections, but only after EXPO 2027 has passed, has once again drawn attention to this international specialized exhibition, which the progressive government “swears” by as a project of key importance for the future of Serbia. Why this exhibition, which most citizens have no idea what will be presented at it, or how it will make their lives better, is clear when you take a closer look at what is being built for EXPO and who is building it. The national stadium, theme parks, hotels, residential complexes, and as builders the inevitable duo from the Millennium Team, Željko Drčelić, businessmen close to Zvonko Veselinović. All of this with the taxpayers money, supposedly in the interest of all of us, but apparently only the chosen ones will profit from the deals.
That EXPO 2027 is the biggest “star” of the budget for next year and the absolute priority of the Government is also shown by the list of ministries from whose budgets this project will be financed. In its analysis of the Budget Law for 2025, the Fiscal Council determined that the state plans to allocate as much as 46 billion dinars from the budget of the Ministry of Finance for EXPO next year. In addition, about two billion euros will be spent on the National Football Stadium alone, as an integral part of that project.
For all projects that will be implemented by 2027, and not only in Belgrade (the “Leap into the Future” project), the state will allocate a total of around 18 billion euros, and most of the work on the preparation of this exhibition has been entrusted to companies close to the Serbian Progressive Party, writes Nova.rs.
As part of the international exhibition EXPO 2027, the National Football Stadium, theme parks, a dolphinarium, a water park, a water sports center, a residential complex, a large hotel with 400 rooms and numerous other facilities will be built over the next two years. The state is also actively pumping money into the exhibition itself, pavilions, as well as legal, marketing and consulting services.
And all these jobs are usually awarded to well-known companies, which have already recommended themselves for this job due to their closeness to the ruling party. The list is long, but let’s recall at least some of them.
National Stadium
According to the latest information, the National Stadium will cost us more than 600 million euros, and the investor of this expensive undertaking is the Ministry of Finance, that is, the citizens of Serbia, taxpayers. According to the set deadlines, the construction of this famous stadium should be completed by the end of 2026.
Namely, the Chinese company “Power Construction Corporation of China” is the contractor (the company that also works on the Belgrade-Subotica high-speed railway), and of course “Mostogradnja ING”, a subsidiary of “Milenijum Tim”, is also participating in the construction, without which no major state project can proceed.
The cost of building the stadium has been rising – over the years. When it was first announced in 2015, the estimated cost of the works was 150 million euros, and just three years later it jumped to 250 million. This year’s budget includes more than 600 million euros – for the stadium, supporting infrastructure and additional facilities.
In addition, at the end of 2023, more than 13 million euros were redirected from the budget reserve for the National Stadium construction project.
The access roads for EXPO are also being built by the Chinese, more precisely, the aforementioned Chinese company “Power Construction Corporation of China”.
Apartments next to EXPO
As part of preparations for the EXPO 2027 exhibition, the Expo Residence residential complex will also be completed, where a square meter will cost up to 2,400 euros, excluding VAT, which is far above the average for this part of the city, and there will be 1,500 apartments on offer.
Namely, this luxury residential complex in Surčin is being built by the company “Conkord Vest”, which is owned by Željko Drčelić, a businessman and vice president of the Board of Directors of basketball club Crvena Zvezda. The company is known for regularly concluding lucrative contracts with the state, and this one is worth more than 250 million euros.
The work will be carried out in a consortium with several other companies, and one of the halls of the EXPO exhibition space will be built by the company “Goter Construction”, co-owned by Kostadin Terzić, son of the director of FC Crvena Zvezda, Zvezdan Terzić.
The contractor is the company “Ex ing B&P”, owned by Srđan Opalić, which will carry out 33 percent of the work. This company is not known to the general public, but it was engaged in the construction of the Crowne Plaza, the Hilton Hotel, Aviv Park, the Skyline skyscraper…
Hotel within EXPO
A luxury hotel with 400 rooms will be built within the exhibition complex for “EXPO 2027” in Surčin, and it will be built by the company “Euro KB rent”, whose owner Zoran Kostić has been linked in the media to controversial businessman from Kosovo Zvonko Veselinović.
The weekly magazine “Radar” writes about Kostić that he is the owner of the “famously successful company Brzmin from Brzeće at the foot of Kopaonik”, and that he is a friend and business partner of the controversial businessman Veselinović.
According to Radar, Kostić is the owner of several successful companies, including Valjevo Breweries, and has also been involved in some joint construction projects with Veselinović, as well as Bratislav Gašić, on Golija and Kopaonik, which BIRN previously wrote about.
EXPO changes budget plans
However, the costs for EXPO do not end there. Namely, the line infrastructure for this complex is also being built. It is also mentioned in the Revised Fiscal Strategy for 2025 on the list of 56 infrastructure projects that the state intends to finance and build in the next three years.
“In addition to these costs, 12.4 billion dinars is an appropriation for line infrastructure, but there are no detailed explanations of what it is. Based on the renaming of certain budget items compared to previous plans, it can only be assumed that this is supporting infrastructure for the needs of EXPO and the National Stadium,” says the Fiscal Council in its assessment of the 2025 Budget Bill.
The document states that line infrastructure includes sewage, roads, electricity and gas installations…
“No matter what we do, 2027 and EXPO are on our minds,” said Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić in mid-February, announcing the country’s economic boom, which, he claims, is linked to the holding of this international trade fair in Belgrade.
The most corrupt project in history
Recall that in June last year, the International Exhibitions Office “Bureau International des Expositions – BIE” selected Serbia to host the international specialized exhibition EXPO BELGRADE 2027.
As stated in the “Preliminary Feasibility Study for EXPO and the New Fairgrounds”, which Radio Free Europe (RFE) had access to, the costs of building just the exhibition complex at that location will amount to 500 million euros.
In order for the construction to be economically justified, the study is counting on the fact that after the exhibition, the fair will move to the newly built facilities in Surčin, while other facilities will remain unusable.
If all these plans are realized, the return on investment of 241 million euros, which is planned for the exhibition halls alone, is expected in almost 30 years, the study states.
The list of investments that this exhibition and the “Leap into the Future” investment program together have will cost us more than 17.8 billion euros.
In line with all the above costs, Dušan Nikezić from SSP assessed that EXPO is currently the most corrupt project in Serbia, which is being abused to contract 323 projects, worth 18 billion euros, without a feasibility study and in violation of the Public Procurement Law.
EXPO27
Namely, the draft Law on Amendments to the Law on Special Procedures for the Implementation of the International Specialized Exhibition EXPO Belgrade 2027 was returned to the parliamentary procedure last month.
First EXPO, then elections.
Let us recall that during a recent visit to the parliament in the village of Jelašnica, Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić, when asked by a journalist how he responds to allegations that he is a “coward” and that he “must not win elections”, said that when you lead a country, you must not respond based on personal vanity, but on the basis of “the needs of the people”.
“When the preparations for EXPO are complete, I will call early elections. In those elections, I am afraid they (refers to a ‘students election list’)will make a lot of mistakes. I thought there was a chance, but they are no longer there. We will defeat them convincingly even then,” Vučić said, thus confirming that EXPO is an absolute priority, which will withstand the dissatisfaction of the people who are paying for it.
Even though hospitals, health centers, institutes, and elementary and secondary schools across Serbia are in the urgent list for renovation, equipment, and modernization, which is being postponed, while citizens are afraid that the ceiling or “renovated” canopy will fall on their heads, the state is blindly clinging to the EXPO 2027 project. The government leaders will defend this megalomaniacal complex, it seems, with their lives, and they are behaving as if they are leading a trained economic tiger on a leash, while citizens “with a stomach for bread” have been leaving the country for years or have been protesting tirelessly for months now, in the fight for a normal life and basic existence, which that tiger, by all accounts, has swallowed long ago.