Gaženica Port and undersea tunnel to Ugljan are Zadar’s investment priorities.
Completing the construction of infrastructure for the passenger-cargo terminal at the port of Gaženica, undersea tunnels, development of the Crno business zone and investing in the Zadar Airport are the four projects that were presented last week in Zadar to the representatives of one of the largest Chinese companies for infrastructure projects - Poly Technologies, reports Večernji List on March 21, 2016.
In addition to the city and county representatives, the first meeting was also attended by Transport Minister Oleg Butković and First Deputy Prime Minister Tomislav Karamarko. After these introductory talks, and a great interest expressed by the Chinese delegation, Poly engineers are expected to arrive soon, followed by some key people from the Chinese company who will be discussing the details related to the project funding.
Branimir Longin, Deputy Prefect of the Zadar County, said that they cannot announce all the elements of the project as of yet, all the more so given that the investors are not willing to say much at this stage of the project. However, he did confirm that these are first serious talks with the investors. Poly Technologies sent a letter of intent and their people showed up in Zadar just a couple of days later.
Zadar authorities said that Gaženica port is their priority, while the Chinese investors have shown interest in it because of the position of the city and the related opportunities for the provision of services and tourism. A container terminal would be built there and – as some previous Chinese delegations pointed out – such a terminal in Croatia would be much cheaper for them than the one in Hamburg through which much of the container business is being done.
The plan is also to make Gaženica a homeport for cruise ships. Moreover, the Chinese have shown interest for the construction of an underwater tunnel that would connect Zadar and the island of Ugljan. China possesses a well-developed technology in that sector as they themselves have a large number of such tunnels.
Great support to tunnels or any type of connection between the island comes from the Minister of Construction Lovro Kuščević as well. "I support linking the islands in another way, not just via ships, and we will support investors who are ready for such an investment", Kuščević said.
Poly has earlier also expressed a desire to invest into the Zadar Airport, and the goal is to make it possible for jumbo jets to land there. This would facilitate the arrival of Chinese tourists to Croatia. The Chinese tourists are, however, faced with the huge problem involving visas, so the government could soon propose the possibility for Chinese tourists to use the same visa repeatedly within the five-year period.
