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Bogdan Laban, Mayor of the City of Subotica

The Free Zone Expands

Thanks to the support of the Government of Serbia and the Ministry of Construction, Transport and Infrastructure, the ring road around Subotica, which was started three decades ago, will finally be completed

This will further accelerate economic development and improve the living conditions of Subotica’s inhabitants.

The German company Boysen will produce exhaust pipes in the Mali Bajmok commercial zone. It will invest €65 million in building a production facility of 35,000 square metres, employing 507 workers. This is the largest foreign investment in our city, says Mayor Laban.

Owing to a large increase in the production volume of companies operating in the Free Zone Subotica regime in the Mali Bajmok commercial zone, and to future investors, you have opened a new customs terminal. How important is that?

– The new customs terminal, opened by Minister of Finance Siniša Mali in early July 2018, will improve the level of operations of companies operating in the Mali Bajmok commercial zone and speed up customs clearance procedures, while the Free Zone Subotica will become an even safer partner in business. The construction of the new customs terminal will create conditions for further expansion of the Free Zone, and therefore the creation of new jobs. Funds for the design and construction of this modern facility of 50 million dinars were provided by the Government of the Republic of Serbia.

After the construction of the Y branch, heavy goods traffic will be moved out of the city centre, while the Kelebija border crossing and the Mali Bajmok commercial zone will be connected to Corridor 10

The new ring road has connected the Kelebija border crossing and the industrial zone with Corridor 10. This route is also important for Subotica, but also for the whole of Serbia. Does this mean that thanks to the help of the republic and provincial authorities, Subotica is no longer a city of started but unfinished projects?

– Work on the ring road around Subotica, the 24km-long so-called Y branch, continued in November 2016 thanks first and foremost to the support and resolution of the Government of Serbia and the Ministry of Construction, Transport and Infrastructure, so that by the end of 2019, this very important project, which had started nearly three decades ago, will finally be completed. In mid-December 2018, a 12-kilometre section was opened to traffic from the circular intersection with the Sombor road to the Horgoš-Novi Sad motorway.

Subotica
Panorama Subotice

 

About 100 billion dinars were invested in the construction of this road. Work on the ring road will Soon continue: sections from the Kelebija border crossing to the circular intersection with the Sombor road, a length of 12.8 kilometres. To realise this investment, the Government of Serbia has earmarked 1.4 billion dinars in 2019.

In addition to the continuation of the Y branch, will there be any other infrastructure projects implemented in Subotica this year?

– To the delight of all its people, Subotica will also in 2019 be one big construction site. In addition to the Y branch, the adaptation, reconstruction and upgrading of the National Theatre building will continue, and the project ‘Protection of the Biodiversity of the Palić and Ludaš Lakes’ will begin, for which the German development bank KfW has provided a donation of €6.5 million. In mid-December 2018, we laid the foundation stone of a spa centre and aqua park in Palić. One billion and 59 million dinars, more than €9 million, will be invested in this project, which will be jointly financed by the Government of the Republic of Serbia, the Provincial Government and the City of Subotica. In Subotica, the German company Boysen will invest €65 million in building a production facility of 35,000 square metres that will employ 507 workers.

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