He said that the expropriation process was successfully completed, and that there are no more obstacles to the construction of complex worth more than €250m.
“We cooperate with the government a lot and we will start the actual implementation of the project soon. It was important to merge more than 120 plots into one complex, which was a big challenge. Thanks to ministers Radoje Zugic and Branimir Gvozdenovic, we made a plan for each individual plot, plus additional plots that we have got through expropriation”, Bankhurst said during the second day of the 7th Festival of Real Estate and Investments – FREI 2016, which is held in Przno.
According to him, the process of expropriation during which they faced numerous challenges lasted longer than predicted, but in the end they managed to reach a final settlement with the land owners. He thanked the government for its openness and cooperation.
“The investment climate in Montenegro is very good. It all begins with the government’s willingness to meet the needs of investors and with mutual interests. For us, this is the starting point of cooperation. We had ups and downs, and passed through several stages of the project. The government is committed to building new hotels, which will change the economy of Montenegro, but also to implement projects which will also be profitable for investors”, Bankhurst said.
Qatari Diar will construct a five star hotel and several luxurious villas at Plavi Horizonti. The project should have been completed in 2014, but it was repeatedly suspended due to property issues and inadequate planning documents.
In addition to Bankhurst, during the second day of FREI 2016 the representatives of the most significant foreign investors spoke about the investment climate and opportunities in Montenegro. They said that the country has laid the foundation for the development of high quality tourism and made significant efforts towards the elimination of business barriers.
They told the minister of sustainable development and tourism Gvozdenovic that infrastructure improvements, reducing administrative procedures and changes in tax policy were necessary for further tourism and economic development.
“It is important to work on agility and improvement of the business environment. Laws must be clear and unambiguous and translated into English. It is necessary to facilitate administrative processes, which will help foreign investors to implement projects”, said Darren Gibson, CEO of Lustica Development, which is building a tourist resort worth more than €1bn on the Lustica peninsula.
Zaur Mammadov, representative of Azmont Investments company, which is investing into a luxurious project Portonovi in Kumbor, pointed to the problem of poorly developed infrastructure and lack of human resources.
“If you do not take care of employees, they will leave. I believe in sustainable development and human resources are essential”, said Mammadov, adding that in the future more should be done to promote Montenegro on distant markets of Asia.
Minister Gvozdenovic said connecting north and south of the country was key challenge Montenegro’s tourism is facing with.
He said that the government would work on the de-bureaucratisation and further improving the business environment in the coming period.
“Other countries would be proud to have such credible investors. Good results in tourism are result of a good and serious long-term policy of the government. We will not give up on it”, Gvozdenovic said.
The discussion was attended by representatives of the company Adriatic Properties, Adriatic Marinas, Abu Dhabi Financial Group, Northstar, Savills, Colliers International and the Council of Foreign Investors.
