Montenegro Must Develop Maritime Economy – Aiming to Enlarge Fleet and Establish Bar-Bari Line

The company Barska Plovidba posted exceptional financial results last year and a profit of EUR 6.2 million, announced the prime minister of Montenegro, Dritan Abazovic, and added that they wanted to develop maritime economy in a different way than before.

While on a working visit to Bar, he said that the result of Barska Plovidba was 156% better than in 2021.

– There are plenty of problems and we want to develop maritime economy in an entirely different way than has been the case before – Abazovic said.

While visiting Barska Plovidba, he said that few companies could survive with only two ships and that the aim was for the fleet to be enlarged.

– The focus is on establishing the Bar-Bari line and not just during the summer tourist season, but also to have it be compatible with the state interest, which is to develop Montenegro 365, that is, to have the country connected with and open to all parts of the world 365 days a year – Abazovic said.

He said that the situation was down to “the incredible misconduct in the past period”.

According to him, they don’t aim for ships to be rented or for somebody else to provide those services.

– The aim is to increase the state capital and to create a company that is healthy and that generates profit for the state, thereby protecting the national interest of Montenegro – Abazovic said.

He said that, regarding the infrastructure monopoly, Bar was ahead of everybody.

– There is no city like Bar, with this kind of infrastructure and resources. The ambition is to complete the Port of Bar. That will be great support to Barska Plovidba, maritime transport and business through the port – Abazovic said.

He added that Barska Plovidba needed to buy a ship.

– The state has already helped state companies through state aid. If they are going to work as they have in the past period, there is no helping them whatever the budget projection might be – Abazovic believes.

He estimated that it was possible to do business in a profitable way and pointed out that a good plan should be devised.

– There should be more lines, out of season it wouldn’t be every day – Abazovic said.

He added that it was similar with the Port of Bar and that he believed that, once completed, it could earn more.

Abazovic said that whoever didn’t want to work in the state administration and didn’t want to create profit for the state was free to make way for others and that there was nothing bad about it.

According to him, Barska Plovidba has a surplus of workers, but “their philosophy is that they lack workers”.

– That means that you have a sufficient number of workers, but that those that you need don’t exist. Let’s do everything we can to have people who want to work and who want their results to be seen – Abazovic said.

The president of the Municipality of Bar, Dusan Raicevic, said that he was glad that the government supported numerous projects, which should be financed from the capital budget.

He said that he was happy about the positive financial indicators of the business operations of the Port of Bar and Barska Plovidba.

– I am glad for the fact that the government is taking certain steps toward the unification of the national resources of the port and putting into function the capacities that the Port of Bar has. Barska Plovidba and the ferry line, which has a special emotional significance for all us citizens of Bar, is what especially interests us – Raicevic said.

He said that they had expressed readiness at the municipal level to solve the problem of the procurement of a shop and that they were discussing putting into function the until then non-functional property of Barska Plovidba.

Dritan Abazović

Bar Bari line

development of maritime transport

operations of Barska plovidbe

purchase of ships

unification of Port of Bar