The Serbian government has sold the land owned by the Belgrade Fair to the Belgrade Waterfront Company, with the relevant sales contract signed in March of this year.
The money that the state will receive from this deal will be used for the construction of the new Fair in Surčin, where the EXPO 2027 pavilions are also going to be built, as can be seen from the presentation which President Aleksandar Vučić gave during his public address yesterday.
Based on the aforementioned contract, a new company will be established with the value of the Belgrade Fair’s land entered as a monetary contribution. However, the presentation itself did not show who will be the founders of the new company.
Only Hall 1, which is under the state’s protection, will remain in state ownership. The land that is currently occupied by several Belgrade Fair halls will be used for the construction of a residential complex.
“That’s also where we’re going to build that big wheel, the eye, whatever you want to call it, a landmark in almost all big cities,” said Vučić.
The residential buildings will span 12.1 hectares, that is, they will be located on the site of the other halls of the Belgrade Fair (except for Hall 1).
Although President Vučić says that public areas will cover 62.32 percent of the land and residential buildings 37.68 percent, the visual presentation did not show that, as only the residential area was shown.
The President’s presentation says that public areas will consist of roads (16.69 percent), promenades (16.56 percent), Hall 1 (9.21 percent), and green areas (6.3 percent).
That is a total of 48.76 percent. If we add 37.68 percent of land that residential buildings will occupy, we get a total of 86.44 percent. This means that 13.56 percent of the land is missing, and there is no official explanation as to how it will be used.
Back in 2015 and 2018 respectively, the Commercial Court and the Commercial Appellate Court ruled that the state-owned 26.48 percent of the Fair. However, those rulings were rejected by the Supreme Court of Cassation which ruled in 2019 that the state should 100% of the Fair.
(Nova Ekonomija, 10.08.2023)
This post is also available in: Italiano