English
This is a historic moment for the country, after more than 20 years the construction of the Skopje-Blace highway has begun, said Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski, who was present today and addressed the laying of the cornerstone for the construction of the highway connecting Macedonia to Kosovo.
Welcome to a project that is historic for all of us — a project that in the true sense of the word, has been presented to us for more than two decades as being about to begin its implementation. But, today, we are all here to witness the beginning of the implementation of this project, something that this Government had as its priority some 25-26 months ago when it was elected to the Macedonian Parliament, said Mickoski.
Mickoski took the opportunity to say, as he said, three things that have not been mentioned so far.
I would not like to repeat myself with previous speakers about the length of this highway section, the cost, where the financial resources come from, who are the institutions that are driving this project, etc. All of these have created a project that will be of particular importance to us. I am talking about our two countries, the Republic of Kosovo and Macedonia — for the citizens between the two countries it will mean a better economy, better connectivity, better transport, better exchange, something that is an extremely important attribute, especially in the 21st century and in correlation with our strategic priorities as a Government. Vice President Nikolovski also spoke about those strategic priorities: since we are a landlocked country, as a state we should be the crossroads of two very important pan-European corridors, which are Corridor 8 and Corridor 10. My first message that I want to send today is that after a little over 20 years this project is becoming a reality. A reality of the Government led by VMRO-DPMNE, VLEN and ZNAM, a promise that was given at the beginning of this Government, was part of the key priorities of the work of this Government and I expect very soon from today that we will see significant progress in the works on the ground and in record time, of course, for this project to be realized. Also, within the framework of this first message, I would like to express my satisfaction that a Macedonian company will carry out the construction work on this project. This means that we will have additional added value in the Macedonian economy, more jobs for Macedonian citizens — something that is one of the top priorities of this Government.
The second thing and message that I also want to send today is that we will not stop here today. Very soon, starting today, we will continue with another highway section that is part of Corridor 8. I hope very soon, starting today, we will be able to attend such an event that will connect the place of Bukojcani with the highway that I expect to launch at the beginning of next year, which is Kicevo – Ohrid, that is, from Bukojcani to Kicevo. This will create conditions in one moment on the territory of the country to build 6 highway sections, something that has never happened before in the past. These are the section from Blace to Skopje, the section from Tetovo to Gostivar, from Gostivar to Bukojcani, from Bukojcani to Kicevo, from Kicevo to Ohrid, and from Prilep to Bitola, something that truly represents a historic moment for us citizens, but also for the country in general.
And the third message that I want to send today, and which I think is very important, is that when you build a street, when you build a road, when you build a highway — you build a future. Today we are starting to build a future, a future for our youth. Because in politics, politicians are transient, they are valued by what they leave behind and the deeds they leave behind. We, as politicians in this Macedonian Government, think that we will leave capital projects, capital deeds that will determine the future of the state and will ensure a future for the youth. Instead of building their future and their families outside their own homeland, this will be a motivation for them to stay here at home more, and for those who left — to make sure that we bring them back here at home and together from home to fight for our common homeland.