Serbia and North Macedonia, with an integrated electronic system for road payment

2023-07-16 17:55:37, Kosova & Bota CNA

Serbia and North Macedonia, with an integrated electronic system for road

The Prime Ministers of Serbia and North Macedonia inaugurated on Sunday at the Preševo ??border crossing the joint integrated electronic system for road payment within the "Open Balkans" initiative. The project is expected to facilitate the circulation of cars and travelers between the two states.

This enables electronic payment to be made at road points with a tag known as TAG, reducing the waiting time of cars. This currently applies to passenger cars, while trucks have to wait until Friday (July 28) to switch to the system. Thus, the citizens of the two neighboring countries will not need to stop and waste time to buy cards or pay for the use of the roads, but will be able to pass with a single "tag" on the roads of Serbia and of North Macedonia, by registering in advance on the internet portal for this service.

Serbian Prime Minister Ana Bërnabi? emphasized the increase of economic and commercial cooperation within the "Open Balkans" initiative, while announcing that in 2022 Serbia and North Macedonia have realized 1.48 billion euros in trade exchanges; of which Serbia about 1 billion, while the smaller neighbor a little over 500 million euros.

Bërnabiç said that she believed that Albania will not withdraw from this initiative, which she called brave and successful.

" I think that regardless of the statements... I don't believe that Prime Minister (Edi) Rama is against the "Open Balkans" initiative and I think that's what he talked about at the last media conference with the President of the Republic of Serbia, Aleksandar Vucic. So, I believe that the future (of the Open Balkans) is bright and safe ".

She said that she expects that slowly everyone from the Western Balkans will be included in the "Open Balkans" initiative, while for this, according to her, as many projects as this are needed " and to show the concrete benefits of this initiative both for the economy and for the citizens " .

Macedonian Prime Minister Dimitar Kovacevski said that the number of tourists for the last two years in North Macedonia has increased by 500 percent compared to the period before the Open Balkans.

" This is the best proof that "Open Balkan" is an initiative that gives results, works and people love it. If we look at the polls, this is the only regional initiative that has the support of over 80% of the population in the countries that are part of the initiative. This is because the initiative gives results. In just three months, the Serbian and Macedonian engineers managed to make the solution for the unified electronic payment of the roads" , said Mr. Kovaevski.

Serbia and North Macedonia have also expanded the lanes at the border crossing of Presheva, namely Tabanoca. However, in this summer season when the flow of travelers, especially emigrants returning to their homeland for vacations, increases excessively and often the wait to enter North Macedonia from Presheva lasts an average of 45 minutes./ VOA