Chinese highway-building company helps Montenegro rebuild primary school

The China-built Montenegrin North-South Expressway project, which starts from the coastal city of Bar in the south and ends at the border city of Boljare in the north, has become an important route for Montenegro to connect itself with central Europe.

The China-built Montenegrin North-South Expressway project

The 42-kilometer Smokovac-Matesevo section is the priority component of the entire Montenegrin North-South Expressway project, undertaken by the China Communications Construction Company (CCCC). There are 16 tunnels, 20 bridges and 4 interchanges in the priority section, which has been hailed with the most technical section with the most construction difficulties because its proportion of bridges and tunnels is about 60 percent and local geological conditions are extremely complicated.

Chinese builders have fully leveraged their technical and managerial expertise to overcome a series of construction problems. The priority section of the Montenegro North-South Expressway project was formally completed on July 13, 2022.

During their building of the major transport project in Montenegro, the CCCC and its subsidiaries have also paid huge support to the development of local education.

In June 2016, the CCCC received a letter from a Montenegrin primary school in desperate need of rebuilding.

The primary school was built in 1963. It got old and shabby because of wars and a lack of maintenance, said Danka Mihailov, head of the school.

Thanks to the opening of the North-South Expressway project, many Montenegrin people have found their jobs there. The number of students in the primary school has grown from four in the past to 52 at present.

The CCCC immediately agreed to the proposal on rebuilding the primary school because local people had provided utmost support in the construction of the highway project.

Therefore, the CCCC dispatched a group of technical workers to undertake the renovation and decoration of relevant facilities in the primary school, with an investment of 4,000 euros in a span of less than two weeks during the summer holiday.

The construction team is invited to attend the school celebration.

A completion ceremony of the renovation project was attended by Petar Ivanovic, then deputy Montenegrin prime minister, foreign diplomats, local media, students and their parents. All attendees spoke highly of the rebuilding work done by the CCCC.

Mihailov said that the primary school will arrange a room as an exhibition venue and hold shows of Chinese culture to help its students learn more about China.

The rebuilding of the primary school has fully demonstrated the commitments made by the CCCC to promoting economic growth, cultural exchanges and the wellbeing of Montenegrin people along the highway project.