How a Chinese highway could put Montenegro's EU bid at risk | DW Business 

It's odd how this documentary doesn't talk about how Montenegro has signed recent contracts with China to build additional roads. One would think that if they are so full of regret that this wouldn't happen.

Here's the dilemma for countries like MonteNegro, if you do not accept Chinese investment and infrastructure, you are not developing and not building anything. If you accept that, EU wouldn't be happy but you had their attention, because you are inviting China instead of them. Now, here's the question, if the Chinese were not there, would the EU even be interested in your country? Would they even mention helping you to build you infrastructure? Think about that. They don't want to help you, but they don't even want others to help you. Same applies to Africa.

I am from Montenegro, and it is great that we finally made that road. With this road we have a good connection to the north. Previous road trough canyon took so many lives. What it took 1 and half hours before now it is 25 minutes ride. Road will pay itself. Montenegrin debt is only 70% of gdp, if you compare it to other western countries it is smaller than most. Only thing is that you hate China, and their influence. Maybe influence of China would not be that great, that EU had let Montenegro in finally. You had let Bulgaria and Romania in and you are setting unimaginable standards for Montenegro, which half of todays members do not have. Please cut the hypocrisy talk. I hope we continue that road more to the north and to the south also.

Honestly, 1 billion euros for a highway 41 kilometers long with tunnels and bridges is quite cheap. The real function of the road is to facilitate more efficient movement of goods and people from point A to point B, which the video clearly stated it was doing. Businesses are booming in the towns the road has connected. You could argue that China was using its own construction crew instead of providing jobs for locals, but that also ensured on time and on budget completion of the highway.

This sounds like, "if you can't help them, complain if someone does". Honestly, all the problems outlined are solvable only if the government decides to work on it. Generations to come will certainly hail the bridge's construction

WHY cant they find European contractor? Because it is 5 times more expensive and five times longer to build

Honestly, I both admire and hate how China operates in the world: wherever it goes, it brings its own workers, always keeping its money in the loop. It barely creates any jobs or bring positive changes to new markets, indebting them due to the typical disregard to long-term planning and environmental protection.

They have clearly made their choice; as a european i don't really want to pay China via montenegro. Montenegro should squeeze their pocket and pay what they agreed with China. Don't expect EU to pay for your choices.

Wow the entire belt and road initiative has become a big dumpster fire for these debt-trapped countries..

Honestly.. from an Indians perspective who’s interested a bit in infrastructure.. 1 billion Euros for this quality and difficulty of a highway running for 40km in today’s money is not a lot atall. I don’t think it was possible to do it without the Chinese building it with their own labour and financing it too. In that sense it’s not really burden because even if Montenegro managed to build it with loans at cheaper rates they would have had to raise a lot more money. The mistake wasn’t really the loan. It probably was the overestimation of benefits coming from it. Sure China enabled the splurge.. but the true crime lies in the decision itself.

Get the person who signed the contract to hand back the 10% he got for signing it. It's not all but a start

Lol why isnt the video talking about Montenegrin government’s faults here?? When projects like this are planned, they should be outlining their priorities upfront, including the environmental ones. Reality is, they probably didnt even consider the impacts on rivers, because there is no political will to look into that. You can blame the builder all you want, but contracts are closed based on the requirements and agreement of the local authorities…

Next prepare for construction of “Chinese police stations” and infrastructure “upgrades” that facilitate Chinese surveillance and data collection.

Do Jamaica next. It's the samething. A river that I have seen since i was born, is now basically non existent since the Chinese built a road there. And the rate of the toll is higher than most motorists can afford, so the toll road always has light traffic. And more and more roads keep being built as a new one will be opened to the public tomorrow. The government has not outlined what the exact deal with china was and what happens if we default on loan payment. So i would love to see real journalists uncover China's growing influence in the Caribbean and how long the Chinese have been infiltrating the Caribbean.

1. EU rejected to fund the project. China came to the rescue with interest free loans. 2. Montenegro sees the Belt and Road Initiative better than EU and US alternative like IMF and World Bank. 2. Montenegro did a bidding, European contractors are expensive, Chinese contractors are cheap with proven portfolio. China won the bidding. 4. Montenegro-BRI contract is available online.

There are several ways to improve the situation and lower the debt. First is to capture the government officials who signed the contract and force them to pay back all the bribes and kickbacks which they received. That is 100% certain as history shows. Second is to start investigations on Chinese companies' blatant ignorance of environment protection and issue heavy fines which will be deducted from the loan if they are not paid in time.

China knows exactly what its doing. They put prices that cant be covered in time and allways in contract is a part of a land ,port etc ; that is given to china for 50-100 years.

Becoming a debtor to China for 40 km. of highway ,is far from being a smart thing to do.But leave them alone,it was their own choice.

🕵 "7 yrs to build, 41km (25mi) long, half hour to drive, cost EU1Billion". Wow, Chinese are so smart! Now that Montenegro is unlikely to afford to complete the 270 miles project or "repay China's state-owned Export-Import Bank on time, the bank then has the right to seize land inside Montenegro, as long as it doesn't belong to the military or is used for diplomatic purposes." Very nice way for China to exert influence and control over Montenegro politically, economically, socially, etc.

If this bridge was built by the US or Germany or any other country beside China, noone will have complained

Same happened in Serbia with its highway, lots of small rivers along it are completely dead.

There is a reason for a poor country being poor. They need a highway with a low price, they need financing, they need you take care of their fish, they even need you to worry about their gov's debt ratio. Next time, ask EU or US to do those things!

The problem with short 4 year-periods. It is easy to start projects like these. Its free. Then someone else have to pay further on.

I am from Montenegro. We are happy because we finally got this highway, we hope that soon the construction of other sections will continue. And you from the west, if it bothers us that we use a Chinese loan, offer us the same or better conditions and we will take a loan from of your banks👋🎁👋

pretty much a hit piece... the first few people interviewed tell you that this has changed their life and their capital city is now linked to the coast whereas before it took much longer on dangerous roads (and by the way one of the reasons China continues to be a formidable competitor for manufacturing is because they invested so much in roads and rail tracks - something Germany might want to up their investment in for example as their trains have become a joke). Now the real question is why this had to be financed by China? well I saw another report on this same subject and Montenegro actually applied for loans from the EU for this first but basically this went nowhere not because of the high price tag (which comes from the fact that this is in a mountainous area) or for environmental reasons but because Germany, the Dutch and the Belgians did not want to open another trading route via the Med that would reduce traffic through their ports. So, well Montenegro looked elsewhere but as usual there are some who conclude that all of this was nefarious. I also remember seeing an interview of an official in an African country who explained that they chose Chinese financing for a bridge because the EU wanted them to first spend on improving the attendance of kids in school. And for them a bridge solved needs including how kids went to school. So maybe Europeans of which I am need to stop always being on high horses and be a bit more pragmatic... But what DW could also tell us is how much EU companies would have charged to build this same road? somehow, I suspect a tad more....

How many EU countries have debts that exceed 100% of their GDP?

Railways are much better use of money and recourses than an expensive length of tarmac.

China relations with other world is based on mutual respect and development projects whereas West relations with other nations depends on demands, wars, stand with them in conflicts and looting their resources. You can see this all since 20 century where West entered they destroyed those nations even examples in recent times are Iraq, Libya and Yemen once those nations were with impressive standard of living and after West stepped in... 😢😢

Its Chinas way of Modern Colonization😆

Great infrastructure!! Money is well spend. Pity environmental inspectors not doing their job.

China's Ecuador's dam is one the best example of China's capabilities: "Since the 2016 opening, officials from the state electricity utility have found more than *17,000 cracks in the power plant’s eight turbines,* according to the state utility. It blames the fissures on faulty steel imported from China."

It's a real shame they chose a Chinese company to save some money. That's 1 billion euros that completely left the country rather than 1.5 billion that was spent on local labour, boosting their economy. They missed out on giving the country a huge stimulus...

Germany built Berlin Airport 20 years and now their Media complaining 7 years, Hypacrocy😅😂😂

hahahaha. Honestly EU should build everything in the same budget and time constraints as the Chinese! Folks complaining seem to think their country can do it cheaper and faster than China! Yes Go ahead. AND China didn't force anyone to borrow money to build roads and bridges. If I am a Chinese Banker, I am far more worried if the loan is going to get paid or not.

It is a sad truth, doing business with CCP China is a very risky and expensive (money and environmental) way to develop a country. Good luck to Montenegro, do not sell your soul to communist China, you are European.

the bad thing about Chinese loan is, it comes with Chinese developers and labour.

People who speak the local language love the highway. People who say it's bad almost all speak in English. I wonder why

Belt and road to nowhere 😂😂😂 funniest title ever

Scientific and accounting errors: 1) The program counts loan payback solely from tolls. Local business boom, all those into private pockets, are missing. 2) The fish shown in pictures are called graylings, full name: arctic grayling in the salmon family. They thrive in cold water and die out in heat waves.

60% Debt to GDP is a very arbitrary criteria given that Germany, one of the top 10 economies of the world has a 67% debt to gdp, france 99 and italy 130. As of December 2022, Russia has the least debt-gdp ratio in europe

Before Chinese, Montenegrin government asked EU to help and they rejected, than Chinese catch chance to help and profit.

If the same money is given to the United States, it will only be enough for dozens of Patriot missiles. So what if it is given to Germany? when the road is still waiting for approval to open, the reporters have already seen God.😂

I thought it's "The Highway to Nowhere" described by Western media?

US debt/GDP is 122%. France, Belgium, Spain, Greece,Italy, UK, Portugal etc are > 100%. So, why demonize China if Montenegro is 70%?

While I share the concerns with the lady about the environment degradation and impact on local biodiversity and such, this video focused only the negatives, like the national debt, and therefore why China, and its Belt and Road, is bad. What the video fails to show, which I am also interested in finding out, is the other part about has building of this highway fulfilled its original intended purposes, like facilitating economy exchanges and profit generated directly as a result of this project? (Assuming the basic logic here is that basic infrastructure serve as the foundation of better goods/services exchanges therefore resulting a better economy performances). And I am not seeing these details presented in this video on the other side of the argument. Dear DW, do a better balanced report, thanks.

So Montenegro better without road than being in debt lol.

Why doesn't the EU or Germany help Montenegro to build infrastructure?

I like how this video condemns China as a lender but didn't say who other than China can provide a better loan. Then the video goes on to highlight environmental damage cause by Chinese workers involved, as if other projects in the world doesn't have environmental impacts that they tried to cover up.

Every infrastructure takes time to gain back profits.. You go to University to get a Degree, you expect the certification to pay back your university cost instantly? Think long term, not short term. Only those who are short sighted will not go for further education.. There was a time when governments had to push people to get an education

It's great until you have to fix it probably every two years

Never in my lifetime that I ever heard countries building roads are bad. But when it comes to China, building roads are waste of money.

So it's the Chinese fault that the 60% debt-to-GDP ceiling cannot be met? A 40 kilometer highway with 1 billion Euro budget is the scapegoat? What an absurd angle!

They should sue the Chinese building companies for the damage (which seems to be higher than the loan they got).

Another prey in the Chinese trap!! No scape. 😳

seems DW want Montenegro become fisherman rather than tourist destination :)

Worse highways in all the problematic aspects mentioned here were built in Albania and Kosovo. But they were built by an American constructor, so... No DW article

Why doesn't the EU replace China and help Montenegro build a highway?

Billion euros for an ice cream stand seems excessive.

The debt to GDP arguement is BS, just take a look at the current EU members.

Dear Montenegrin NGO, you are not from the US or EU country; yall didnt have money before China, dont blame China if yall go broke.

Lol that expensive road😂😂😂

We are proud to have Chinese fast train technology ❤

i think the EU doesn't care one bit for the Balkan

One thing can be confirmed, i.e. If the highway were to be built Europeans, it would be at least twice the price and twice the time to complete. More importantly, the quality of the highway is good and long lasting. Chinese have been building highways since more than 2200 years ago. The first highway in the world was built by the first emperor Qin. It was 700 km long and still exists till today. If you have a chance to visit Xian, China, do go and see it for yourself.

It's not mentioned that the country's coast is a tourist destination and this highway has cut multiple hours of travelling time to the coast. This highway was necessary in order to make their tourism profitable. The problem is more that the country is too poor for such a project due to the lack of investment and corruption.

God Damit these type of highway can make money in High population countries like India China USA ... where per hr flow of traffic is enormously high. Still In India NHAI do not dare to finance it 100% with loan ...

People with a knowledge of finance, will agree that road construction projects are not financed by tolls, ITS BASIC. tolls are for maintenance. BUDGET is for paying FD.

If it is not done by the Chinese, it would take at least 10 years and 2 billion USD.

They need to tell the lenders that they will get 75% of the toll money. The other 25% will go to maintenance. Its not like china can come take the road up. If china wants to complain too much, just nationalize the road, and tell china to pound sand. Declare the contract void. Change the law if needed. Yeah it will screw with their international standing, but at this point, that is almost a given.

This is what is called a debt trap. The Chinese government is offering Montenegro a huge loan that it will not be able to repay, with the aim of seizing Montenegro's state-owned assets as a result. That is, the colonization of Montenegro.

It's not a Chinese highway but a Chinese built highway. It's a Montenegro highway since the government agreed to have it built for a certain price. Why they bought something they can't afford should be answered by the government.

Why EU don't help Montenegro build the bridge? That's ridiculous

How about the benefits the highway brings.

They never heard of made in china 😅😅😅 tofu projects

In Slovenija this highway would cost 3B€. Great job Montenegro. Don't stop and proceed with highway to Serbian border.

How is this not Montenegro Government's fault and responsibility to govern what happens in their own country?

If west won the project, no one will complain 😂

I felt from the report that someone in the EU is unhappy because Montenegro decided to cooperate with China in building modern infrastructure!! I have seen a report on the Chinese CGTN RU-vid channel about this particular Montenegrin highway, it is a whole different story over there.. I recommend everyone to listen to the other side before judging!!

Let me guess, the Chinese underbid the project then after they started said due to uncontrollable circumstances the costs tripled but no worries we'll lend you the money. Same thing happened in Indonesia with the high speed rail project that tripled in cost due to the pandemic. Ironic isn't it.

Developing countries are not mindless zombies who can't make their own decisions, if a bank offers you a loan to buy a house and you buy a big house, but then you regret it, that's not the fault of the bank but yours. The same applies to developing countries. In Chile we have accepted and paid several Chinese loans without any problem at all.

A VERY FRIGHTENING SCENARIO

It’s never smart to rely solely on one source of income or loans Just simple money management but then again, when the bling bling is showing, such logic flies out the windows

Someone in Montenegro got back pay handsomely for the tunnel n road that's why it was built - chinese companies d don't worry abt environmental damage - it's not their country

well the west is building roads in north macedonia at a price 5 times biger then germany pays germans to build it at german standards, its a good thing china exist so we dont have to pay colony prices for simple things

When the U$A says they want to help you by building infrastructure in your country, they don't mean hospitals, roads, schools, etc. They mean military bases. --island country saying

Montenegro is about to find out about CCP’s tofu bridge constructions in 5 to 10 years. That’s how long it usually takes for highway bridges in China to collapse.

She works for an “NGO”

Everyday one million euros cross the roads as good and services, one billion is nothing.

I encourage doing big infrastructure projects and I expect that those will change the environment, but huge new car infrastructure in 2023? And with a loan from China plus the unnecessary dumping of stuff? Doesn't really make sense. More modest train tunnel/upgrade would probably have been a bit cheaper, frienddlier to environment, while still hugely beneficial to the local economy 🤔

So building roads that brings in more income to the populace and shorten travel time is a sin? Any major form of construction will create some waste. This is like telling me I like to drive a car with zero carbon footprint, the moment the car is made the carbon footprint is already there. It is a trade off anyone have to face and think about before buying (NOT AFTER).

The problem isn't with the Chinese, it's with the government of Montenegro that can not handle safe waste management and naturalization of the river bed

1 billion would buy u 2km of highway in us or europe.....my country Singapore paid 5 billion for a 5km long underwater highway lmao that is literally 1 million dollar per meter of highway, u could literally pave the road with 24 carat gold......forget about getting 1km of highway for 25 million dollars,.......there is no country in the developed world where u can get a highway that cheap........the hsr in california is already slated to cost between $88 billion and $128 billion,u could literally build an entire small size city for a couple million people with that kind of money.

Infrastructure is vital for any country’s economic development. Criticizing the Chinese for offering loans and get this project done does not make any sense at all!! You should be happy for the local people seeing boosts economically than criticizing.

I went on a family trip in Montenegro when I was a kid. We went to the sea because it is beautiful. I was stunned when I saw so many chinese kids and adults, and was even MORE stunned when I heard them speak serbian. They spoke as well as I did, and I asked my cousin why they are here, and he told me they are the kids of chinese investors who came to live in Montenegro. There were at least 300 chinese kids on that beach, that means there are even more chinese families who immigrated there.

I visited Podgorica in 2014 for Telecom Project. People were loving and it was super safe. I used to walk back home after office. I lived there for two months but memories are still there for their love and care.

Government corruption is how these deals happen, and is the main reason why they'll never enter the EU. The road is only 1/4 done but already costs $1,500 per Montenegro citizen. It's only used 1/4 as much as it needs to be to be economically viable. They hope it'll provide more economic benefits 10-20 years into the future, but it's a huge gamble what they are doing.

China is a country of deep debt itself and one that encourages others to become indebted. It will take a while for this reputation to catch up with them, but it will. Attitudes towards China will be much more skeptical by 2035.

The bottom line while EU is thinking and continuous to think , while China came for few months and built it

Hahah that ice cream shop is how they’ll pay back the loan 🤣🤣

It seems that the people in that small town should be permanently isolated from the outside world. It is clear that the road crosses the river with a bridge, but it is blamed on the highway for causing the river to stop flowing. The interviewee is even more ridiculous. Anyone with a little common sense knows that in the water The concrete will solidify quickly, and the uncondensed concrete will soon segregate into sandstones and sink to the bottom of the river under the action of water. How can it solidify on the gills of fish. If you find a few discarded steel bars and call it a garbage dump, go check some of the rivers in Germany and see what you can find?