The Chinese companies that submitted bids for the construction of the “Buk Bijela” hydropower plant requested additional guarantees from the Government of the Republic of Srpska to sign a contract for this project worth 250 million euros. As a reason, they cited the disputes about this hydroelectric power plant that are being conducted before the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina and UNESCO.
The hydropower plant “Buk Bijela” is a joint project of “Elektroprivreda Republika Srpska” and “Elektroprivreda Srbije” worth 250 million euros.
Of that amount, “Elektroprivreda Srbije” will provide 51 percent of the funds, and “Elektroprivreda RS” 49 percent, which is the amount of the participation of the two electric companies in the joint venture “HEP Gorna Drina”.
The turnkey hydropower plant should be built by one of the three Chinese companies that submitted bids a few months ago, namely Dongfang Electric Corporation, Power China, and Energy China.
In addition to construction, the company chosen as the contractor should also provide financing, while the governments of the RS and Serbia will guarantee the repayment of the loan.
Although it has already been four months since the bids were submitted, the decision on the contractor has not yet been made.
One of the main reasons for this is the request that these companies made to the governments of Srpska and Serbia. Namely, the Chinese requested additional guarantees about this project, citing as the reason for the disputes that are being conducted about it before the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina and UNESCO.
