Skopje, 1 May 2023 (MIA) — According to a special law and the signed construction agreement, 51 percent of the Bechtel and Enka consortium's construction workers on the Corridors 8 and 10d project have to be locals, according to First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Political System and Inter-Community Relations and Corridors 8 and 10d Coordinator Artan Grubi in a Facebook post.

"In Kosovo, over 70 percent of the hired workers were locals, and in Albania and Serbia, about 50 percent. Our initial forecasts, after doing a market analysis, are that all the country's available workforce will be hired, possibly over 70 percent. All rights and obligations stipulated by the Labor Relations Law laws will be strictly abided by," Grubi wrote.

He also said the opposition VMRO-DPMNE and Levica parties would cost the state over EUR 150 million if they blocked the parliamentary vote on the laws related to the project. He said they would not be able to stop the construction project, but merely make it more expensive and delay the highway construction. mr/