This is the first time our readers are going to hear of MakedonijaPat, so could you tell us about your responsibilities and also the events that have marked the evolution of MakedonijaPat throughout the years?
First of all I would like to thank the Minister for saying such good things, and to you for coming here to have this interview. I am director of the Company. I am appointed by the Government of the Republic of Macedonia for a period of four years. Public company means that the capital, which is available, is from the state. The main task of this company is maintenance of highways, the main roads and the regional roads in the Republic of Macedonia, while the rest of the roads like local roads and the streets within the cities are local authorities and municipalities concern. The road network in Macedonia consists of highways - our biggest roads; on the lower level we have the main roads and afterwards, the regional roads. Makedonijapat provides maintenance and repairing of these roads. We have 231,8 km of highways, of trunk roads 743 km and about 3100 km of regional roads for a total of about 4100 km. What does the maintenance cover? It is divided in sector areas; the main priority is winter road maintenance. According to our weather conditions this means that from November to April, we have the responsibility to clear snow off the roads. This year you didn't have a chance to see any snow but if you were here last year you would have seen at least 1 meter high snow mountains on the sides of the roads. This year we didn't have much work. So the main goal is to provide secure and safe travelling and transport on the roads, so whenever there is snow it should be cleaned as soon as possible in order to provide safety.
Besides winter maintenance we also have the regular maintenance, which is basically from April to November. During this period we mainly repair the damages from the winter period such as holes, the fences on the sides, the traffic signs… This is much easier compared to the winter regime. The third item is the investment maintenance. Investment maintenance includes our attempts to keep the roads on a certain level so that they would provide safe transport. Due to our weather conditions, an asphalt road has certain limited period of lifetime of about 30 years after which it has to be repaired. If we wait for 30 years, it will take a lot of money to fully repair it. That's why we provide this maintenance during the whole year.
How long has MakedonijaPat been serving Macedonia?
Makedonija Pat has been around since 1945, just right after the liberation. When this company was created there was only one road about 3-5 km long, made of concrete blocks.
Can you describe what is your relation, collaboration with Mr. Stojman Jovcevski and M&S International?
M&S is a consulting, engineering and export-import company with and Mr. Jovcevski has a lot of experience in road matters. From the very beginning when I took this position I decided to have M. Jovcevski assisting me. His main task was to prepare a request for a donation, a grant from Japan through JICA (Japan International Cooperation Agency). I can say that we have been very successful; we have received a grant of 6,8 million US$. It's going to be used for construction equipment. It is going to be disbursed during this year. The Governments have already signed the respective agreements, now there are certain procedures to be fulfilled to get to the final stage. He has enormous experience and I would like to utilize it for myself for being successful in my work.
Do you intend to utilize this experience and the equipment for widening the road network?
This assistance, the grant that we are receiving from Japan, is going to be fully realised by the end of this year. With the representatives of Jaika we made a list of the roads that are going to be repaired or renewed in the next four years. It is not about new roads, but rehabilitation of the existing ones. The reason for this is that because the building of the new road network, the main priority in our country is in building highways. These could be financed by credits and concessions. The idea is to find somebody who will receive the concession - along these highways there will be tolls. Japan will not provide assistance if we have any profit related to those roads. The Japanese grant is received on the basis of the damages the roads suffered during the NATO intervention on Kosovo. Even though our GDP is higher compared to their criteria for this kind of help.
Who do you expect to attract on those concessions you are going to release for the roads?
There's a US study which covers the development of the road network in Republic of Macedonia till 2020. It's planned to have corridor 8 from Durres to Burgas, from Albania to Bulgaria, which goes through Macedonia along 2 directions, northern and central (I can show you that on the map). You see the road network that MakedonijaPat maintains. The Corridor enters the country at Kafasan border crossing between Macedonia and Albania. It continues in two directions across the Republic of Macedonia - the first one is the Northern corridor: Struga, Ohrid, Kicevo, Gostivar, Tetovo, Skopje, Kumanovo, through Kriva Palanka going to Bulgaria; the Central corridor as part - Skopje, Ohrid, Resen, Bitola, Prilep, Veles, Shtip and Delcevo to Bulgaria. The Northern Corridor is in process of construction. The area between Tetovo and Gostivar has already been built. We're working on the construction of Skopje-Tetovo section - a part of it using a credit from the World Bank and the European Bank.
We don't have any experience with concessions. The section between Prilep and Veles has been offerd one because it needs full construction, but I must say that there's not a strong interest for building roads under concession because we don't have information of what kind of and how much traffic we're going to have. We don't have data because one needs to have the corridor built to know what will be the traffic density.
The other one is the Corridor10 that comes from
Vienna through Yugoslavia, Macedonia to Greece.
On our territory it needs to complete the section
from Demir Kapija to Gevgelija. The rest of it is
already covered by highway. The main project has
been completed with a donation from PHARE. Now we'll
have to see whether we are going to ask for some
kind of donation or we continue with some credit. |
Which is the most important for you, the European East-West access or the North-South?
Both are important, but we are much closer to completing the North-South. We are also working on the other direction. I have information that construction is going on in Albania as well as in Bulgaria. This is a very important corridor for the three countries, Albania, Macedonia, Bulgaria; connecting the Black Sea with the Ionic sea and the Mediterranean. It's not only going to be a road corridor, it's going to have a railway as well. We are working on the construction of the railway from Kumanovo to - oh, and there are plans to have along the corridor the oil pipeline, telecommunication lines, so it's going to be a complete one.
Does MakedonijaPat have to open new tenders for Corridor 8 or any side projects?
When a particular road is built, for example from Skopje-Tetovo, there is a final study prepared and it's assigned to MakedonijaPat to be maintained. So the Fund for trunk and regional roads announces a tender, an example is the international tender in '98 for the road from Skopje to Tetovo. The civil construction company "Granit" from Skopje won the tender, and when this road is open for use MakedonijaPat handles the maintenance. This is the way things stand right now, but we are facing privatisation. Under pressure from, the IMF we are being forced not to have monopoly on the road maintenance in the country. The time when there will be tenders for maintenance of the roads is coming very close. The main goal of the Government is not to have a monopoly company maintaining, but a number of different construction companies providing maintenance. My job as director of this company is to provide good conditions for the privatisation of this company, to make it a good one to able to compete with the rest of the companies that will be on the market.
When do you think you will achieve this optimum efficiency?
We have continuous pressure from the IMF. All the reforms the Government is supposed to carry out include the privatisation of this public company. I believe by the end of my mandate as Director of this company, that process will be finalised
How do you see the privatisation and how do you think it will impact the traffic in Macedonia and the road quality?
I believe that with the privatisation the level of maintenance of the roads will improve. I'm saying this because then there will be a change in the way of thinking among the employees in the company. They will understand they will have to earn their salary unlike the opinion prevailing now that the Government provides their salary. That company would be probably more mobile with the engagement of all the employees, the market conditions will start functioning, influencing the value of the work, of the company time. Currently we work with prices that don't provide profit, but only existence. Because we are a public company we shouldn't have any profit because we're using the funds of the Government. When we appear on the market, we are going to bid on different tenders for maintenance. When we are going to be a private company, that is when we would probably go with a price that would provide some profit, which would definitely be used for modernisation and improvement of the equipment we have. There will also be competition from other construction companies, so our offers will have to be realistic - so the things will change in many levels.
Do you believe this higher quality of road network will contribute to attracting new investors?
Definitely. Probably the interest will be much higher but it will also very much depend on our surroundings. I believe that our Government is working very well in that area because it's open towards all our neighbours, yet we still are considered by the foreign investors as a risky area. Regarding the size - we are just a small spot on the map. When someone hears about Kosovo and the risks and of military interventions, well we are on only about 18 km from Kosovo. As a consequence we are considered to be a risky area, but you are here, you can see for yourselves that we are not. I can tell you that compared to our neighbours - in regard to the road network both with regard to construction and maintenance approach - we are on higher level. Certainly, if our aim is the EU we have a lot to improve in order to reach this higher criteria. I believe that in the coming years investors will relax and the investments in the state will increase. Until now we haven't had any investments related to building highways, but currently the investments in the state are increasing - especially from Greece and Germany.
Probably you are not going to ask me but I would like to tell you about the damages that we've had as a result of so much NATO traffic. All the military staff that are currently in Kosovo were primarily situated in Macedonia. The transport coming mainly from Greece and Bulgaria was moving along our roads that had not been created for that kind of heavy machinery and heavy equipment. On top of it, it all happened in the summer months when the temperatures were very high - above 40ºC. You can imagine the temperature of the asphalt. The damages were huge. But, things are getting clearer now. For instance a few days ago, the Fund signed an agreement for renovation and rehabilitation of bridges from Kriva Palanka to Kumanovo with funds provided by the US army as a grant. The total value is 1,800,000 DM. As NATO starts participating in the rehabilitation of the roads, one of our policies is to join the NATO. I hope that with NATO helping, we'll also be included in getting the standards and especially for the bridges as facilities on the road, the standards of the US, Germany…
You told us that you've been here 2 years but we don't know much about you otherwise. Can you tell us what was your professional background?
I graduated with a degree in civil engineering in Skopje in 1981. I'm still working as a visiting professor on the Civil Engineering Faculty here in Skopje, I've worked in the field of Geo-mechanic. This area includes working on the layers, soil, structure, with a speciality foundations of living constructions, buildings. |
Makedonijapat- Skopje