English

Mihailović: Airport concessions will protect state’s interest

Božo Mihailović

When it comes to the strategic development of Montenegro, there’s no more important issue than the one referring to development and valorization of the Airports, which have already become a bottleneck in the overall country’s industry, especially in the context of the EU accession talks. To be clear – this represents a core principle for asking the most appropriate valorization model, having in mind our limitations. The airport concession is an acceptable and desirable model, in case the country and the Airports as a company want to protect their interests through an agreement, said professor at the Faculty of Economy and president of the Association of Economists of Montenegro, dr Božo Mihailović.

He said: “I’m glad to see citizens included in this public hearing. I’ve noticed a great interest and received many questions in this regard. I myself would be the happiest if only we had enough funds to solve our problems all by ourselves. But, based on the  information I collected, that won’t be possible. The Airports of Montenegro is state-owned and the state has a large debt so any further borrowing would just complicate the whole situation. I highly believe it’s completely unnecessary as we have alternatives.”

The country should engage more consultants in this process, just to avoid having one person for legal, economic and technical issues. Therefore, we should see whether we need more experts, according to Mihailović.

He also finds interesting the fact that many people are against the airports concession even though still nothing has been done in this regard. “We have an initial study/analysis, but there are so many phases in this process, and  we need to stop at each one of them and think thoroughly. I’d hereby like to remind the Montenegrin public of criticism we were facing regarding the highway construction, the tunnel Sozina, etc. Nothing new for our people, I would say.”

He called on the state to protect from certain negative consequences, such as transferring to other airports.

 

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