The 809 million euros Montenegro received from China's Export-Import Bank covers 85 percent of the cost of the first section of the road.
The dollar-denominated loan carries a 2 percent interest rate, 20-year repayment schedule and 6-year grace period – attractive terms but a major long-term burden for a country of roughly 620,000 people.
Under the terms of the contract, an arbitration court in China would have jurisdiction in the event of any legal dispute. CRBC won commitments that all imported construction materials, equipment and other goods be exempt from customs and value-added tax. Chinese workers were given 70 percent of the work.
Some 3,605 workers are busy building the first section of the highway. Roughly two-thirds of them are from CRBC, one of the largest engineering and construction firms in the world.
Four camps of neat blue-roofed bungalows house the Chinese workers. Dotting the area are billboards in Chinese and English exhorting them to be meticulous and responsible.
"CRBC expects to build the future sections of this project," Kang Shifei, deputy project manager for CRBC, told Reuters on a blazing hot afternoon in June, beneath the giant pillars that will support a kilometre-long bridge above the Moraca canyon.
Because the government did not hedge against currency swings and omitted a vital turnpike from its original blueprint, the cost has continued to rise. It is now approaching 1 billion euros, nearly a quarter of Montenegro's GDP.
A March report from the Washington-based Center for Global Development which examined the debt risks associated with BRI listed Montenegro as one of eight highly vulnerable countries, alongside Djibouti, the Maldives, Laos, Mongolia, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Pakistan.
The remaining three-quarters of the highway will plough through less mountainous terrain. The IMF estimates it will cost another $1.2 billion to complete.
Prime Minister Dusko Markovic has said it will be finished at any cost and promised to deepen cooperation with China in other areas, including hydropower and tourism. He has dismissed critics as "disbelievers".
But opposition politicians are worried – about the country's finances and about China's role.
Dritan Abazovic, head of the United Reform Action opposition party, said it was normal for an economic power such as China to seek a role in the region, alongside the EU, United States and Russia.
But because of the scale of the project, he worries the deal with the Chinese will end up giving Beijing much more influence over Montenegro.
"It puts the Chinese in a very very comfortable position," he said.
