Vitezy: Hungary initiates declassification of Budapest-Belgrade railroad investment

We are initiating the declassification of the Budapest-Belgrade railroad investment, Hungarian Minister of Transport and Investment David Vitezy announced on his Facebook account.

He added that this had been the largest infrastructure investment in Hungary in recent years, worth more than USD 2 billion.

– At the same time, this project raises numerous technical and economic questions. Even the route they chose was not optimal for domestic passenger traffic, the costs significantly exceeded the industry average. Despite the fact that the deadlines stipulated in the contract have already expired, the investment has not yet been completed. The new government has two tasks regarding the project. The investment must be completed to the end, since the degree of completion is already well above 90%, and passenger traffic should be restored as soon as possible – the Hungarian minister emphasized.

Vitezy, however, notes that this can only be done after all the safety systems have been tested several times and are found to be correct and functional.

– It is equally important that after many years of secrecy, we finally get a clear picture, even if retroactively, of the entire investment. Let’s find out more about the impact studies that were the basis for determining the route, and also why, for example, the government decided to pay the Hungarian contractor in dollars so that all the profit from exchange rate differences could belong to that company. For this reason, the government decided at its session on Thursday to initiate the process of removing the secrecy label from this investment – the Hungarian Minister of Transport and Investment stated in his announcement.

He noted that it would probably be a long process, because, for the original contract, the documentation regarding cooperation with the Chinese side also had to be disclosed.

– We are optimistic that they (the Chinese side) are no longer interested in keeping the documents secret either – said David Vitezy.

Billing in dollars to state’s detriment

The Hungarian Minister of Transport and Investment also spoke about the Budapest-Belgrade railroad at a government conference on Friday, June 5, when he announced that the government had decided to order a complete review of the previous investment decisions on the construction of the Budapest-Belgrade railroad.

– The review will obviously cover everything from how and under what circumstances the public procurement for this investment was carried out, to how and who decided to pay the Hungarian construction company in US dollars. This led to a significant increase in the costs of this investment, since the forint exchange rate has been continuously deteriorating in recent years. As a result, Hungarian contractors have been carrying out the same construction work in Hungary at increasingly higher prices. This is completely unacceptable, because in practice the foreign currency loan model has been used to the detriment of the Hungarian state, which they have thus deceived through the railroad construction project – said Vitezy on Friday.

David Vitezy

Belgrade Budapest high speed railroad

construction of Belgrade Budapest high speed railroad