Mali: EXPO 2027 will cost 1.2 bln euros, not 18 bln

BELGRADE - Serbia's caretaker First Deputy PM and Finance Minister Sinisa Mali said on Monday claims the Belgrade EXPO 2027 would cost 18 bln euros were a lie and that the event alone would cost 1.2 bln euros, while the cost of 323 projects across Serbia would total 17.8 bln euros.

In a Facebook post, Mali wrote that the 1.2 bln euro sum included six projects: the Expo complex - to become the new Belgrade fair grounds - the accompanying infrastructure, a 1,500-flat residential complex, an aquatic centre, a rail line connecting Zemun, the airport and the Expo, and a new pier on the Sava River.

"Besides the EXPO, the 17.8 bln sum also includes the Morava Corridor, the Commander Karadjordje Motorway, the Fruska Gora Corridor, the Preljina-Pozega and the Ruma-Sabac-Loznica routes, as well as local roads and railway infrastructure," Mali added.

"The lie that the Belgrade EXPO will cost 18 bln euros, doggedly repeated by opposition representatives and opposition media, should be debunked once and for all," he wrote in the post.