Chinese leader Xi Jinping pledged in his address to the United Nations General Assembly that his country will no longer be constructing new coal-burning power plants abroad as its contribution to tackling climate change but a Chinese consortium still has a valid agreement with Bosnia and Herzegovina on the construction of Block 7 of the Tuzla Thermal Power Plant.

The initially 760 million BAM worth project has been on hold for years and meanwhile its price rose to 1.4 billion BAM. Over the past 15 years since the project was initiated, four governments and four general directors of Elektroprivreda BiH, the main carrier of this project, have changed.

“JP Elektroprivreda BiH expects a final statement on how the new policy of the People's Republic of China regarding the construction of thermal power plants will affect the Block 7 project. The agreements concluded with the GEZHOUBA Consortium and the Export-Import Bank of China on the construction of Block 7 and construction loans are still valid,” the EP BiH told N1.

Elektroprivreda, a public company, previously said that it would not give up on this project, although ever earlier the Chinese partners announced they would not be able to fulfill the obligations from the contract because their American subcontractor cancelled the contract with them.

The Prime Minister of Bosnia's Federation (FBiH) entity, Fadil Novalic, said that the fate of this project should be decided by legal experts and the entity Parliament. Lawmakers requested more information from Elektroprivreda BiH in this regard.

The company told N1 that it will provide the requested information to the government within the given deadline.

The party Nasa Stranka accused the government of having spent so far 233 million BAM on “this non-existent block” and that, therefore, Elektroprivreda’s reply should find itself on the agenda of the parliament “so that we, as representatives of the citizens, but also as citizens ourself, would be informed about further steps regarding the contract,” Nasa Stranka said.