Republika Srpska’s authorities has handed a roughly $938 million wind energy challenge to a little-known Chinese language-Singaporean consortium with no public tender, prompting questions on transparency and oversight in Bosnia-Herzegovina’s Serb-majority entity.
The challenge, which is now known as the Leotar Wind Farm and deliberate to be constructed close to the southern metropolis of Trebinje, was granted to the corporate by way of direct negotiations moderately than a aggressive bidding course of regardless of authorized provisions that prioritize public tenders for concessions involving pure assets.
In 2025, Republika Srpska’s authorities signed a cooperation settlement with a consortium composed of Zhongji Building Group from China and Zodic Vitality, a Singapore-registered agency with solely three staff and fewer than a yr of documented enterprise exercise. No public tender was introduced, no competing bids have been disclosed, and no detailed analysis of the traders’ technical or monetary capability has been made public.
Beforehand, the challenge had been awarded — additionally with no public tender — to a different Chinese language-Singaporean consortium, Zhongbo Group and China Energy, which signed an settlement with Republika Srpska’s authorities in 2024. That consortium later withdrew from the challenge for causes that have been by no means formally defined.
The episode, watchdog teams say, is illustrative of how Republika Srpska’s authorities makes use of murky authorized loopholes to court docket Chinese language funding and restrict oversight for large-scale useful resource initiatives.
“This construction makes it troublesome to confirm the credibility of traders and creates dangers of conflicts of curiosity or concealment of ties between actors,” Transparency Worldwide’s Bosnia-Herzegovina workplace stated in a late December report concerning the deal.
The report added that such offers “depart room for suspicion concerning the legality of the process and the opportunity of favoring sure traders,” and that the case highlights the weaknesses within the administration of pure assets and huge infrastructure initiatives in Republika Srpska.
Loopholes And Transparency Issues
That lack of transparency additionally feeds broader geopolitical issues in Republika Srpska and the Balkans.
The European Union and the US have repeatedly warned that Bosnia-Herzegovina is especially uncovered to murky Chinese language funding practices.
Throughout a listening to in December, US Congressman Keith Self warned that China makes use of financial initiatives within the Western Balkans to take advantage of weak governance and corruption, and a November report by the European Council on Overseas Relations ranked Bosnia-Herzegovina among the many international locations most uncovered to Chinese language affect within the area.
Below the regulation of Republika Srpska, concessions are typically meant to be awarded by way of public tenders. Nevertheless, the identical regulation permits exceptions if the federal government indicators a direct settlement with a particular investor. Watchdog teams describe that provision as a loophole that undermines aggressive and clear decision-making.
Following the withdrawal of the primary Chinese language-Singaporean consortium, the practically $1 billion challenge was rebranded from Trebinje 1 to Leotar and reassigned to the brand new traders, once more by way of closed negotiations.
Republika Srpska’s Vitality and Mining Ministry advised RFE/RL that the cooperation settlement with the Chinese language and Singaporean companions was signed on October 3, 2025, however didn’t specify who signed it on behalf of the traders.
The ministry said that Zodic Vitality is obligated to safe permits and financing and to assemble the wind farm, after which a concession settlement could possibly be finalized. If permitted, the traders would pay a concession payment of seven.8 million convertible marks ($4.6 million) to the finances of Republika Srpska.
Officers did reply to questions on why a public tender was not held or how the federal government assessed the credibility of the traders.
Who Are the Traders?
Publicly obtainable details about the businesses concerned stays sparse.
Zodic Vitality, which formally utilized for the concession, was registered in Singapore in March 2025. The corporate has no web site, no publicly listed contact particulars, and no disclosed monitor file in large-scale wind vitality initiatives.
Zhongji Building Group, headquartered in Beijing, claims on its web site to function in sectors starting from renewable vitality and sensible agriculture to drone manufacturing and worldwide commerce, with annual enterprise quantity reportedly exceeding $2.6 billion. Nevertheless, it offers no project-specific particulars for Bosnia and Herzegovina, and its exact position within the Leotar wind farm stays unclear.
Regardless of being a signatory to the cooperation settlement, authorities of the Republika Srpska confirmed that solely Zodic Vitality formally utilized for the concession, elevating questions on Zhongji’s precise obligations and monetary publicity.
Additional ambiguity surrounds the possession path left by the earlier consortium.
The withdrawn traders had established Zhongbo Group d.o.o. Banja Luka in September 2024. When the brand new consortium took over the challenge, it additionally acquired this native firm.
In response to Republika Srspka’s enterprise register, Zhongbo Group d.o.o. has no listed telephone quantity or e-mail deal with. Its registered workplace in central Banja Luka, at Aleja Svetog Save 7A, homes principally regulation companies, with no seen signal of enterprise exercise.
The corporate’s director, listed as Zhang Wei, didn’t reply to RFE/RL’s request for remark.
A Sample of Pricey Disputes
Transparency Worldwide’s Bosnia-Herzegovina workplace stresses in their report that Republika Srpska has a historical past of controversial concession offers that later resulted in worldwide arbitration and main monetary losses.
They cite a case involving the Slovenian agency Viaduct, the place Republika Srspka was ordered by Bosnia-Herzegovina’s Excessive Consultant to pay the equal of $67 milliom in compensation to the corporate after unlawfully terminating a hydroelectric challenge.
The entity’s authorities are additionally within the means of taking on the coal mining concession held by Comsar Vitality, owned by Russian oligarch Rashid Sardarov, who’s searching for greater than $140 million in damages.
Issues persist on the native stage, as effectively. The Trebinje metropolis meeting has permitted the preparation of a zoning plan for the wind farm awarded to the Chinese language-Singaporean concession, however opposition councilors say they got no significant details about the traders.
The challenge nonetheless requires approval from Republika Srpska’s Concessions Fee and the entity authorities, adopted by years of allowing, planning, and financing. Building, officers say, might final 5 to seven years.
“You come to the meeting, you’re introduced with such a choice, and you already know nothing concerning the contractors who’re presupposed to tackle this severe job,” Dajana Milisic, an opposition councilor in Trebinje’s metropolis meeting, advised RFE/RL.
