Belgrade, April 26, 2002 - Serbian Assistant Minister of Transport Branislav Boskovic today announced talks with several European railway administrations on terms of repayment of ZTP debt through international transport business services, which is one of the obligations Serbia has to fulfill in order to ease the burden on transport infrastructure left by recent years' legacy and get on board the rapid development of transport in Europe.
Boskovic said that ZTP ran up $193 million in debt between 1992 and 2001, due to international embargoes from 1992 to 1995. The debt remains due to backlogs of foreign goods on Serbian railroads and an inability to cover the costs of transporting domestic goods during the period of the high inflation.
The Serbian government adopted a platform for the talks, under which they will ask for a write-off of 50 percent of the principle, with the rest to be repaid in six years and a deferral in repayment until 2006. The ZTP debt for the period from 1992 to 1995 amounts to euro 150 million, and from 1995 to June 2001 euro 43 million. The largest creditors are Hungarian, Austrian, Romanian, Czech, Russian, Slovak, French, and Swiss railways.
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