Slovakia as of 2014 will pay concession-holders of private-public partnership (PPP) projects approximately €700 million a year over a 30-year period, said Transport Minister Ľubomír Vážny at an HNClub meeting on Tuesday, October 13.
Vážny said he believed that Slovakia can handle such instalments, and that the benefit of using the highways built within PPP projects is greater than the fact that the country will have to settle the payments. The minister considers the sums involved to be "comparatively insignificant" vis-a-vis gross GDP in the long-term. "If GDP incomes keep growing, instalments can be handled," he said, adding that the sum of individual instalments is fixed.
The Transport Minister conceded that the first years of payments will be problematic as the state is already paying approximately €663.88 million for the construction and maintenance of highways. According to Vážny, the state is already preparing for the payments by including them in future budgetary plans. "The saying that the most expensive highway is the one not yet built is still valid," he said. Up to 150 kilometres of highways are due to be built as part of PPP projects in Slovakia. The projects are divided into three packages, each covering specific highway sections. TASR
Compiled by Jana Liptáková from press reports
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