Aleksandar Nikoloski: Road and rail projects impossible without engineering expertise
Nikoloski: Multi‑billion euro road and rail investments require expert engineering oversight; Eurock 2026 gathers hundreds of professors in Skopje.
Aleksandar Nikoloski, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Transport, said that Macedonia's strategic location at the crossing of Pan-European corridors 8 and 10 makes the country central for European transit, and that large-scale investments in roads and railways cannot be executed without strong engineering expertise.
Speaking at the Eurock 2026 scientific conference, organized by the Macedonian Geotechnical Society and the Faculty of Civil Engineering in Skopje, Nikoloski outlined the government's plan to carry out one of the most extensive investment cycles in the country's history — several billion euros for building and modernizing the national road and rail network.
Engineering guidance as a project driver
Nikoloski stressed that in the context of these multi‑billion euro projects, engineering expertise plays a decisive role in delivering results and managing technical challenges that arise during construction and modernization works.
He also emphasized the prestige of hosting a major international gathering in Skopje and highlighted the contribution such events make to local academic and professional capacities.
“Skopje and Macedonia have the honour to host this year and that is not accidental, it is because of the victory which in 2023 the Faculty of Civil Engineering took at the gathering in Salzburg, where it won first place in the field of innovativeness and that is why this year this gathering is taking place in Skopje. It is truly wonderful to see about 600 professors from around the world, from all parts of the world, discussing the greatest engineering challenges in the field of civil engineering, something that will certainly help a lot our faculty and our professors and scientists who will certainly help us to implement even more projects,” Nikoloski said.
The minister singled out the exchange between international experts and local engineers as a practical benefit that will support project preparation, risk assessment and the implementation of modern technical solutions across Macedonia’s transport network.
Photo: press material from the event
