April 11, 2011,the signing ceremony for MOU of Vardar Valley Hydro-Power Project was held in Skopje. President Wang Yu, on behalf of China International Water & Electric Corporation, Governor Fan Lixin, on behalf of China Development Bank, and Deputy PM Vladimir Pesevski and Minister of Economy Fatmir Besimi, on behalf of the Government of Macedonia, signed the MOU. Macedonian PM Nikola Gruevski, Minister of Transport and Communications Mile Janakieski, Deputy Minister of Economy Vaskov, Director of Foreign Investment in Macedonia Mizo, Charge d'affaires of the Chinese Embassy Mr. Cui Zhimin and Commercial Counsellor Mr. Li Lianzhong etc. were invited to the ceremony.

                   

In the speech, Charge d' affaires Mr. Cui Zhimin said, with great cooperation in different sectors achieved in recent years, the Chinese government would like to intensify bilateral cooperation with government of Macedonia, in the field of infrastructure including energy etc. on the basis of equality and mutual benefits. The signing of this MOU has laid a new milestone for the cooperation between the two countries and we hope this project can be implemented very soon.

Deputy PM Vladimir Pesevski appreciated the great support from the Chinese government and the Chinese Embassy and looked forward to talking the details of project feasibility study with CWE as soon as possible.

Macedonian PM Nikola Gruevski also had a meeting with the Chinese delegation after the ceremony.           

Vardar Valley hydro-power project, as the most magnificent project in Macedonian history, consists of 12 hydro-power stations on the river Vardar, which will be constructed in the next 12-15 years with the total cost around 1.5 billion euro. The realization of the project will create 3,000 direct jobs and 20,000 indirect jobs every year for Macedonia.