Representatives of rail companies of Croatia, Serbia and Slovenia signed in Belgrade on 9 September 2010 a protocol on establishing the joint regional Cargo 10 company to facilitate the transport of goods on the pan-European Corridor 10.
Serbian Infrastructure Minister Milutin Mrkonjic said at the conference today that the cooperation of all concerned companies could reduce the time of transport from Munich via southeastern Europe to Istanbul from the current 55 hours to 40 hours and that the number of trains travelling from Ljubljana via Zagreb and Belgrade to Istanbul could be raised by an additional 3,000.
Croatian Infrastructure and Transport Ministry State Secretary Danijel Mileta said that some 350 million euros from European funds for transport infrastructure could be available to Croatia and that some 250 million of that amount could be spent on rail infrastructure.
According to Minister Mrkonjic, Serbia will have to invest EUR 4.5 billion into the modernisation of its rail infrastructure in the next six years.
Railway companies from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia and Montenegro have also expressed their interest in joining Cargo 10.