Bosnia to Vote on Biggest Post-War Energy Project

Bosnia's Federation parliament is due to decide at a July 23 session on the future of what has been called the biggest single post-war investment in Bosnia - construction of Bloc 7 of the power plant in Tuzla.

The government of Bosnia's Federation entity has asked the Federation parliament to support the project undertaken by the power company Elektroprivreda BiH, which is worth more than 785 million euro.

The plan is to build a new 450-megawatt plant in the northern town of Tuzla, where a plant already produces most of the electricity in the country.

“Bloc 7 450 MW TE Tuzla is the biggest post-war investment in Bosnia and Herzegovina,” Elektroprivreda BiH has said. “Implementation of the project is of special significance for the future stability of the energy sector.”

If parliament in the Federation gives its support for the project, Elektroprivreda, which is totally owned by the Federation, will choose a constructor in a public tender. Parliamentarians on Wednesday will obtain a presentation of the plan of the investment.

Elektroprivreda said that in the first phase of the tender procedure to choose a project partner, 11 companies had showed interest, including Japan's Hitachy and China's Gezhouba Group Company Limited, CGGC.

Elektroprivreda said the Japanese company had since pulled out and two Chinese companies were left in the frame.

The proposed model of investment is for Elektroprivreda BiH to invest 15 per cent of money and for the other 85 per cent to come from loans from the EXIM Bank of China.

The trade union of miners in the Federation strongly supports the investment plans. It says that building another plant will increase jobs and that it would oppose anyone blocking the...