The tender for the construction of the second section of the highway in Montenegro has been submitted by a Chinese company and three consortiums: two Chinese and one Turkish-Azerbaijani. One of the participants in the tender is China Communications Construction Company (CCCC), which is on the blacklist of the United States of America (USA). There are also two other consortiums from China: Shandong Foreign Economic & Technical Cooperation – Shandong Luqiao Group and PowerChina-Stecol. The third consortium is Turkish-Azerbaijani, Cengiz–Azvirt, which has been present in the region for more than a decade through its parent companies.
The construction of the second section from Mateševo to Andrijevica, in northern Montenegro, is scheduled to begin by the end of the year, with the works expected to be completed in five years. The project is worth 600 million euros, of which 150 million euros are non-refundable funds from the European Commission, 250 million from the Montenegrin budget, and 200 million are loans from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), with which the Government signed an agreement during the summer.
China Communications Construction Company (CCCC)
The Chinese state-owned company CCCC has been on the US blacklist since 2020 due to its ties to the Chinese military. The company and its subsidiaries were blacklisted by the World Bank until 2016 due to fraudulent practices and suspicions of corruption in a national highway project in the Philippines. It built the Hambantota port in southern Sri Lanka with Chinese loans. The Sri Lankan government, unable to repay the loan, handed the port over to China for 99 years in 2017. According to the organization Just Finance, CCCC violated several laws during the construction of the E-763 highway in Serbia (on Corridor 11), which connects Belgrade to the Adriatic Sea. The company has been building some of the largest infrastructure projects in Serbia for years.
As part of the CRIC&CCCC consortium, it participated in the reconstruction and modernization of the Belgrade-Subotica high-speed railway line, within the framework of which the Novi Sad railway station was rebuilt, the concrete roof of which collapsed on November 1, 2024, causing the death of 16 people. It also built 31 kilometers of the “Miloš Veliki” highway, the Prelina-Požega section, the works of which have been postponed several times. The contract, worth 450 million euros, was obtained without a tender, through a direct agreement with the state, while financing was provided through a loan from the Chinese Exim Bank. In 2021, CCCC engaged as a subcontractor the Slovac quarry, owned by Zvonko Veselinović and Milan Radoićić, who a few months later were included in the US sanctions list for links to corruption networks and international organized crime.
CCCC is the parent company of China Road and Bridge Corporation (CRBC), which was the main contractor for the first section of the 41-kilometer-long Bar–Bolare highway in Montenegro, which cost Montenegro around 900 million euros. The construction, which was plagued by numerous delays, took seven years, with a lack of transparency and fiscal and environmental problems, which the EU has repeatedly warned about. Montenegro received a loan from the Chinese Exim Bank for this project. Due to difficulties in repaying the debt, the state – with the mediation of the EU – was forced to sign an agreement with two American and two European banks to protect the public debt from currency risk. The loan will be repaid by 2035.
Shandong Foreign Economic & Technical Cooperation Consortium – Shandong Luqiao Group
The consortium Shandong Foreign Economic & Technical Cooperation and Shandong Luqiao Group registered its representative office in Podgorica at the end of 2022. The following year, it won the contract for the construction of the Budva-Tivat airport road (16 kilometers), worth 54 million euros, with a two-year construction period, according to the agreement signed on March 29, 2023. Although the deadline expired more than six months ago, the works are still ongoing. Since July 2024, this consortium has also been carrying out the reconstruction works of the Djurgjevica Tara bridge, in northern Montenegro, a gift project from China.
In Serbia, the Shandong company won the works for the Požarevac–Golubac road in 2021 without a tender, through a state-to-state agreement, worth 337 million euros. The expected completion for the end of 2024 has been postponed to the beginning of 2026. Among the subcontractors were the companies Inkop (owned by Milan Radoićić and the brothers Zvonko and Žarko Veselinović) and Novi Pazar, which since 2022 has been working on another project in Serbia worth 158 million euros, financed mainly by a loan from the Chinese Exim Bank. All of these companies are on the US sanctions list for organized crime and corruption.
In Bosnia and Herzegovina, Shandong’s subsidiary, SDHS-CSI BH, has signed a concession agreement for the construction of the 40-kilometer Banja Luka-Prijedor highway, worth around 300 million euros. The contract documents have been kept secret by the Banja Luka authorities, despite four court rulings requiring their publication. The completion of the works, scheduled for the end of 2024, has been postponed to spring 2026.
Chinese state-owned company PowerChina
PowerChina has expanded its operations in the Balkans through subsidiaries such as Sinohydro and PowerChina Resources. In Bosnia and Herzegovina, it is involved in the Ivovik wind farm project near Livno, which has been plagued by complaints from residents and disputes over land and concession rights. In June 2019, PowerChina (through Sinohydro and PowerChina Road Bridge Group) and AzVirt from Azerbaijan signed a contract for the construction of the Poçitel Bridge (valued at €28 million). The works, which were supposed to be completed in March 2023, were not completed until September 2024. All companies involved in the project were blacklisted by the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Highways in May 2023 for breach of contract.
In Serbia, PowerChina is involved in the Belgrade Ring Road project and the construction of the Belgrade Metro. In December 2024, it signed a contract for the first phase of the Metro Line 1, worth 720 million euros, the details of which are “trade secret”. Also in 2024, PowerChina completed the first phase of the largest solar park in Serbia, Saraorci, and signed agreements with Turkey’s Fortis Energy for the development of solar and wind power parks. In Montenegro, PowerChina has no signed contracts, although it has met with several energy sector officials.
Cengiz–Azvirt Consortium
The consortium consists of the Turkish company Cengiz and the Azerbaijani AzVirt. Both have won major road construction contracts in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Croatia and Slovenia. At the head of the consortium is Cengiz Holding, one of Turkey’s largest private companies, with around 44,000 employees and revenues of over 5 billion euros. Its director, Mehmet Cengiz, is mentioned in the Panama Papers, through reports by the OCCRP organization, for offshore companies and suspicions of corruption in a dam project in Azerbaijan. Cengiz Holding’s success is linked to state projects in Turkey – the Istanbul-Ankara high-speed railway, Istanbul airport – and to its proximity to the power of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan since the early 2000s.
In Bosnia, through its sister company, Cengiz built the Vlakovo–Tarçin section of Corridor 5C in 2012. Two years later, a 120-meter-long retaining wall collapsed before the road was opened. The company then built the Poprikuše–Nemila segments, as well as the Bosna and Zenica tunnels. The value of projects won by Cengiz in Bosnia exceeds 1 billion euros, mainly financed by the EBRD and the European Investment Bank. Cengiz has also built the Karavanke Tunnel in Slovenia and completed the reconstruction of the Križevci–Koprivnica railway line in Croatia. In July 2025, in Podgorica, Cengiz Holding established the Cengiz Insaat branch, for road construction.
The second member of the consortium, AzVirt, is a private Azerbaijani company that has won tenders in Serbia and Bosnia. In June 2019, AzVirt was part of the Azerbaijani-Chinese consortium for the construction of the Poçitel bridge, and was subsequently blacklisted for breach of contract. In May 2019, AzVirt and Hering from Široki Brijeg signed a contract for the construction of the Vranduk–Ponirak segment, worth 76 million euros. The project was suspended in July 2023 after the funds were spent and the deadlines expired. AzVirt’s ownership is divided as follows: Elnur Alijev (25%), Falcom Holding (Luxembourg) (25%), Martin Beteiligungs (Germany) (30%) and Walz (20%). In Podgorica, AzVirt has been operating since 2012, with only one employee and no significant revenue. In 2024, the company reported losses of around 20 thousand euros./rel
