EU funded new 500 million Euro bridge in Croatia, which was then built by a Chinese state-owned company with Chinese steel and workers
EU funded new 500 million Euro bridge in Croatia, which was then built by a Chinese state-owned company with Chinese steel and workers
7 comments
Like in Hungary just we built railroad…
Yeah other EU companies lost out.
They were cheeper and build it on time.
To be fair, the Chinese gave a very competitive offer with low prices and an early completion date.
Given the rising tensions with China, the EU might rethink excluding China from public procurement projects but given the situation back then when the project was awarded to the Chinese bidder, I don’t see much to criticise.
Things like this will be our grave. EU money should only be spent on EU companies.
They actually lost money on it and then scraped the initiative that made them do it in the first place. So it’s actually a win.
The “oh no, European companies lost out” crowd need to realize that it would have cost 50% more, still used imported materials and the majority of the profit would be held by large shareholders, not get redistributed to the economy in any sensible way.
That’s how the building industry works, unfortunately. Cheaper, cheaper, cheaper, no matter what. Screw quality and longevity. Cut corners until it breaks.
So choosing a good Chinese company (was it?) might actually be better than choosing a European fly-by-night for the same money.