There is a piece of news that sounds almost unusual in Macedonian construction: a domestic company, after several decades, will once again be the lead contractor of a highway in the country. Granit AD Skopje, one of the largest and best-known construction companies in the country, will lead a consortium that will build the Skopje-Blace highway. The works, as announced, begin this summer.

Why is this news in itself? Because over the past decades, the big infrastructure projects here have regularly gone into the hands of foreign contractors - Turkish, Chinese, Italian - while domestic firms at best got a subcontracting role. When a Macedonian company once again becomes the lead on a project like this, it means that the money, the jobs and the expertise stay at home rather than going across the border.

The Skopje-Blace highway is strategically important - it is the direct link to the border crossing toward Kosovo, one of the most frequented routes in the region. An improved road there means faster transport of goods and people, and the connectivity the economy has long needed.

Still, this news carries the usual Balkan caution too. Announcements of works beginning "this summer" here can stretch into years, and budgets tend to grow along the way. That a domestic company is leading the project is good news; whether it will be finished on time, on budget and without the usual inflations, time will tell. For now, at least the start is where it should be - at home.