China and Serbia signed a preliminary contract on power station cooperation in Belgrade on Wednesday, with a total value of US$1.251 billion.

General Manager of the Electric Power Industry of Serbia (EPS) Dragomir Markovic, representative of the Chinese company CMEC Jin Chunseng and Director of Kostolac thermoelectric power plant Dragan Jovanovic, at the Serbian government headquarters, signed the preliminary contract.

The project includes the revitalization of the two existing blocks B1 and B2 of the Kostolac thermoelectric power plant, each of 350 MW capacity, and desulphurization of these two blocks, as well as the project of increasing capacities of the open pit Drmno to 12 million tons of lignite per year, with the construction of the new block B3, by the turnkey system.

Serbian Minister of Energy and Mining Petar Skundric, who attended the signing of the precontract at the Serbian government, said that the Chinese partner will take part in the project with approximately 85 percent of total funds, which is more than US$1 billion.

At a press conference, Skundric assessed that this is one of the biggest investment ventures in the forthcoming investment cycle in the energy area, adding that the project should promote strategic cooperation between Serbia and China.

Chinese Ambassador in Serbia Wei Jinhua, attending the signing ceremony, said that he believes this project is just a beginning of cooperation between China and Serbia in the field of energy.

(Xinhua News Agency February 4, 2010)