POZAREVAC, Serbia, Aug. 31 (Xinhua) -- The Chinese-built Danube Corridor expressway will boost Serbia's economic development, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said Sunday at the expressway's opening ceremony.

Photos: Xinhua

Vucic, along with First Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Sinisa Mali, Minister of Construction, Transport and Infrastructure Aleksandra Sofronijevic, and Zhang Zhe, charge d'affaires of the Chinese Embassy in Serbia, attended the event.

After traveling along the Danube Corridor expressway on Sunday, Vucic spoke highly of its significance for Serbia's development, saying that the project will play an important role in advancing Serbia's national interests, boosting domestic tourism and driving economic growth in the country's eastern region.

The expressway would officially open to traffic on Monday, announced Vucic.

Zhang said he believed that the completion of the Danube Corridor would attract an increasing number of tourists to the scenic eastern part of Serbia.

"This also confirms what we often say -- roads connect not only cities with cities, but also the friendship of peoples and opportunities for future development," Zhang said.

According to Shandong Hi-Speed Group, the project's contractor, the Danube Corridor expressway is an important branch of the E75 motorway in Europe and another flagship project of China-Serbia cooperation.

The 68-km expressway has four lanes in both directions and a designed speed of 100 km per hour.

Construction took five years, during which Vucic visited the site seven times and hailed the project as "the road to the future."