Nikoloski: Corridors 8 and 10 Are a Strategic Goal, and on Ohrid-Kichevo He Says "We're Making Excellent Progress" - After More Than Ten Years of Construction

"Yesterday I visited the Ohrid-Kichevo highway, we're making excellent progress there," said Deputy Prime Minister and Transport Minister Aleksandar Nikoloski at a panel discussion on the EU and Macedonia in the new geopolitical reality, organised with the Konrad Adenauer Foundation. For a highway whose construction began more than ten years ago, "excellent progress" sounds rather familiar.

Nikoloski's message was that Corridors 8 and 10 are the government's strategic policy, because they bring economic progress and political stability. Macedonia, he says, is surrounded by the EU: 76 percent of its exports go to member states, and 46 percent of its imports come from there. The country's geographic position is an advantage that, in his words, "we can and must use".

What was promised, and what was built

On Corridor 10, the highway is being modernised with EU support, and under the Growth Plan five laws on intelligent transport systems are ready. Implementation comes next. The railway is supposed to get a high-speed line for passenger trains running at 160 to 200 kilometres per hour and for freight at 120 kilometres per hour - for now, on paper.

On Corridor 8, Nikoloski admits, the roads are further along than the railway, "but there is still a lot of work to do". The Bukojchani-Kichevo, Bukojchani-Gostivar and Gostivar-Tetovo sections are under construction. In the east, work with the EU covered the Stracin-Kriva Palanka section with its bypass, and next comes Stracin-Kumanovo, that is, up to Romanovce. With the World Bank and the EU, there are plans to expand the Kjafasan and Deve Bair border crossings.

He saved the brightest number for the airports: this year he expects over 4 million passengers, something he himself had only expected around 2031-2032. "Which for a country of 1,800,000 inhabitants is truly a huge number," the minister said.

EU Ambassador Michalis Rokas repeated at the panel that Macedonia's place is in the EU. From the Growth Plan, Macedonia has 750 million euros available until 2027, but that money is tied directly to reforms actually carried out. That is the core that rarely makes it into the speeches: corridors are not built with panel discussions, but with deadlines, tenders and conditions met. How many of the announced sections will we actually drive on this term, and how many will end up in the next speech?