Excavators in Modriča are building a new highway or a scene for an election campaign without a Chinese loan?

Two years have passed since the Republika Srpska authorities solemnly announced the imminent construction of the highway from Modriča to Brčko. That section is particularly important to Milorad Dodik in emphasizing national pride and unity because it should connect Banjaluka and Belgrade. But since then, not a meter of new road has been built, nor has a Chinese bank approved a construction loan in a deal done far from the public eye. Excavators recently appeared on the construction site, but "Autoputeva Republika Srpska" refuses to explain for the new episode of TV Justice whether construction is really starting or another election campaign.

Two years ago, as a member of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina at the time, Dodik said in a ceremonial room in front of representatives of the company "China State Construction Engineering" that "everything is known about the construction of the highway and that there are no delays". Not long after that, shortly before the start of the official election campaign for the 2022 elections, Dodik said during the official laying of the foundation stone that he was "proud that deeds remain behind us".
Today, the authorities of Republika Srpska and "Autoputevi Republika Srpska" do not want to talk about this highway, the construction of which never even started.
They refuse to explain why in July 2024, not far from Modriča, on the route of the future highway, machines appeared that cleared several hundred meters of the route, especially because the director of "Autoputeva RS" himself claims that the contract with the Chinese "Exim" bank has not yet been signed.
Answering the question of the Detektor journalist about the financing of the highway, after the business portal Capital revealed that the loan has not yet been approved, the director of "Autoputeva" Nedeljko Ćorić could not say when the construction will actually start.
"We cannot talk about dates when we do not have a date from the opposite side. We can only say when it will be when we receive confirmation from the Chinese bank that the bank has approved the financing and when they, in accordance with their procedures, schedule the signing," said Coric at the press conference, after which he stopped responding to Detektor journalists' requests for an interview. 
The Prime Minister of the Republika Srpska, Radovan Višković, previously boasted about the agreement reached with the Chinese partners.

"The contract includes all actions, from design to construction itself, and we will already in the next few days, or more precisely, we can inform you now that on August 31 we will officially appear at the opening of the beginning of the construction of this part of the highway for which we signed the contract today" he said.
The leaders of the municipalities through which the highway should pass were also present at the ceremonial laying of the foundation stone. Among them are the mayors of Modriča and Šamac municipalities, Jovica Radulović and Đorđe Milićević.
They say that they do not receive information about the project from the entity authorities and that they learn most of it from the media.
"I attended a pompous opening in 2022, deeply believing that at least something would start from what was said and done. "According to all the statements of representatives of Chinese companies and the Government of Republika Srpska, it was a matter of a month when the activities would start", says Milićević and adds that in 2024 there is no guaranteed financing.
For the two chiefs, the ceremony of signing a contract that they have never seen and the ceremony of laying the foundation stone in August 2022 were just part of the election campaign. This is how they perceive the appearance of an excavator near Modriča a few weeks ago.
"We need to know the context of that August two years ago - it was about the pre-election campaign, it was about the general elections that were crucial for this regime, and I can freely say that this is something on which they built the 2022 campaign," says Radulović. for Justice TV.
The company building the Modriča - Brčko highway did not respond to Detektor's request for an interview.
From the beginning, the whole deal has been accompanied by a lack of transparency, like similar large jobs that the Republika Srpska authorities award to Chinese companies, says Srđan Traljić from Transparency International in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Where they encountered a good system, Chinese investors adapted and did business under those conditions, he adds.
"What is specific for countries such as ours and other countries in transition that have a government that is quite authoritarian is that in such systems they did not set any special conditions or worry about whether they could repay these loans," says Traljić. 
Adnan Huskić, professor of international relations at the Sarajevo School of Science and Technology, sees Dodik as one of the reasons why Republika Srpska is still waiting for the approval of the Chinese loan, which made all the projects more expensive.

"Ultimately, you see that Dodik's policy has made Republika Srpska unattractive for any kind of business management, unless it is a classic brokerage, that is, a project that was not even intended to be implemented," he believes.

CONCLUSION

The text that we published on the website last month about the delay in the Chinese loan of 750 million KM for the construction of the section of the highway from Modriča to Brčko was continued. Without official information to the public about (not) getting a loan from Chinese creditors, without informing about the conditions of getting or the reasons for not getting a loan, the authorities in the RS briefly started the works. Even the leaders of local administrations, who should have at least basic information about whether and when, in fact, the construction of the section of the highway from Modriča to Brčko, are not informed about these works, how long they should last, etc.

However, this and most of the other deals concluded by the authorities of the Republika Srpska entity of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Chinese are non-transparent and unknown to the public in the parts that relate to the rights and obligations of the RS entity and the Chinese creditor's. Bearing in mind the previous, negative experiences with the refusal of the authorities in the RS to disclose to the public the details of the contracts they conclude with Chinese companies, it is reasonable to suspect that the realization of this project (if it happens) will be unfavorable for the citizens of the RS. The fact that the Chinese creditors have still not remitted the funds even though the foundation stone for the construction of this section was laid two years ago. The public has no information from either the RS authorities or the Chinese side about the future of the project. What probably forms the background of the whole case is the fact that the RS has nothing to guarantee the loan, which is why it is campaigning against state property in BiH, which in their opinion should be the property of the entity.