The freight train of the Chinese Railways „China Railway Express“ with more than 500 tons of equipment for the construction of railway line through Serbia arrived today, on October 24th , and was welcomed by the President of the Republic of Serbia, Aleksandar Vucic, and Vice Minister of Commerce of the People’s Republic of China, Qian Keming. The train from China was also welcomed by Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Construction, Transport and Infrastructure, Zorana Mihajlovic, the Ambassador of PR China to Serbia, H.E. Chen Bo and the Mayor of Belgrade, Zoran Radojičić, at the railway station Novi Beograd.
The train departed on September 24th from Chinese town Jinan in Shangdong province as the first direct train from China to Serbia, which traveled 10.500 km through Mongolia, Russia, Belarus, Poland and Hungary to arrive in our country.
The president, Mr. Vučić, said that all the equipment from China meets the European standards and has necessary certificates for the construction of the high-speed railway line. He also said that the part of the high-speed railway line, designed for the train speed up to 200 km/h, from Belgrade to Stara Pazova, in the length of 34,5 km, will be finished by the fall in 2021.
The equipment of the Chinese company CRBC and CCCC was transported in 28 wagons and it is going to be used for the construction of the high-speed railway line from Belgrade to Budapest as a part of the Chinese project “One Belt One Road” in which Serbia is also engaged.
„The railway section to Subotica will be finished by the end of 2022 and I will also talk to the Hungarians to ask them to accelerate works on their part of the section, so that the railway line to Budapest could be finished as soon as possible“, said Vučić.
According to his words, the high-speed railway line to Budapest will provide excellent connections to Europe and for the industry and people, especially the young people, will represent “life”.
Mr. Vučić expressed his gratitude to the president of China Si Đinpingu for help and Chinese investments in Serbia, especially in Ironworks Smederevo and RTB Bor, which helped the Serbian industry to recover and Serbia to finally become a country everybody wants to be in and not to leave.
Vice-Minister of Commerce of the People’s Republic of China, Qian Keming said that the friendship between Serbia and China has a very long history.
“Our two countries rely on each other and, as steel friends, bear all the troubles together”, explained Keming and added that Serbia is the first country in Central and Eastern Europe to establish with China functional strategic partnership.
Among the others, the ceremony was also attended by representatives of the Serbian railway companies.
The new multisystem Vectron locomotive, which was purchased by the company “Serbia Cargo” thanks to the Serbian Government, was used on this occasion of the freight train arrival.
