"Chinese Wind Farms In Bosnia Spotlight Clash Of Interests, Corruption In The Heart Of The Balkans" 22 March 2024

In recent years, massive Chinese investment in the Western Balkans under the umbrella of the BRI has led to grand promises of regional and national economic prosperity and new infrastructure...The Ivovik wind-farm project that pushed Ivkovic and his family off their land is currently China’s largest investment in the country...

Ivkovic's family has worked the land and maintained grazing pastures for their cattle on Ivovik Hill for centuries. But he says his livelihood has been lost amid a series of opaque business deals between Chinese firms and local officials...

But the wind farm’s lofty ambitions are now caught up in a complex saga of land disputes, questionable concessions, and murky deals that highlight where Chinese state interests and shady local business practices collide...

At the heart of the controversy around the Ivovik wind-energy project is a dispute over land ownership...The story of the Ivovik wind farm begins in 2008 when three locals established a limited liability company called Ivovik Wind Park and used the new firm to buy a concession for land in Ivovik...records show the company and its land concession was sold to CNTIC Capital Co. Limited Hong Kong and Sinohydro Hong Kong in 2017 for an undisclosed amount.

After the Chinese firms’ acquisition of the wind-energy project in 2018, a notice was issued to property owners to reregister their land...but many residents near Ivovik Hill say they only became aware that they no longer owned their land when Chinese excavators arrived to clear the ground and build access roads...

The Ivkovics filed a joint lawsuit in 2018 against the city, but the first court hearing was not held until September 2023, long after construction on the project had begun...Slaven Jukic, the lawyer representing the Ivovik wind farm, refuted those claims, telling RFE/RL that the Economy Ministry is currently registered as the owner of the disputed land, not the Ivkovic family.

“We provide compensation [to the canton] for the use of that land. If the [Ivkovic family] can demonstrate that it is their land, we will present them with a contract and compensate them instead of the canton,”...

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...recent shifts in the ownership structure of the wind-energy project have raised troubling questions around transparency and tax fraud...

Ivovik Wind Power now owns 51 percent of the wind energy project in Bosnia, while China National Technical Import and Export Corporation (CNTIC) owns a 39 percent share...

The Ivovik wind farm was to be completed by December but currently remains unfinished with no information about a timeline for completion....