Earlier today, Prime Minister Andrej Plenković and Premier of the State Council of the People’s Republic of China Li Keqiang visited the Peljesac Bridge construction site at Brijesta. The two prime ministers reached the port of Prapratno by catamaran and talked about the progress of the works on Peljesac Bridge, the intricacies of its construction […]
Earlier today, Prime Minister Andrej Plenković and Premier of the State Council of the People’s Republic of China Li Keqiang visited the Peljesac Bridge construction site at Brijesta. The two prime ministers reached the port of Prapratno by catamaran and talked about the progress of the works on Peljesac Bridge, the intricacies of its construction and furthering cooperation between Croatia and China.
In his apposite address in Brijesta, Prime Minister Andrej Plenković thanked their hosts and the contractors on Peljesac Bridge, the China Road and Bridge Corporation (CRBC), adding that they have been working on realizing the most important and largest infrastructure project in the Republic of Croatia at an accelerated pace in the past months. ‘The ambition of several governments of the Republic of Croatia, but especially the encouragement, interest and continued striving for this project’s completion flowing from the Dubrovnik-Neretva County, have been present in Croatian political, intellectual and media space for nearly 20 years’, he reminded.
He stressed that this was a project which, once realized, had a genuine strategic significance for Croatia, in connecting the south of Croatia with the remainder of the country.
‘Therefore, this bridge will symbolically ensure the unity of the national territory. Its significance in terms of transport and tourism, but also considering the fact that the territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina will remain an external border of the European Union for a certain time, for all the citizens of Croatia, for all those arriving to Croatia, is reflected in uninterrupted travel to the extreme south’, he said. Plenković characterized the fact that the Peljesac Bridge, a project with a 520 million euro price tag if its connecting roads are included, was co-funded using 357 million euros in European Union contributions, as extraordinarily important and valuable. He stated that the Peljesac Bridge will represent a lasting memorial, in the most observable sense, to the first few years of Croatian membership in the European Union.