Serbia’s Minister of Construction, Transport & Infrastructure — Zorana Mihajlovic — and China Railway International have signed a $319 million agreement regarding the modernisation of the Belgrade-Budapest line.

Under the terms of the agreement, local companies will be able to bid for up to 46% of the work (by value). A Memorandum of Understanding was also signed with China EximBank for a loan to finance the modernisation, which is part of a project to provide a 3hr journey time between the Serbian and Hungarian capitals.