Li Keqiang said, the opening of the bridge is a remarkable achievement. It will significantly shorten the travel time between the north and south parts of Croatia, realize the long-held wish of the local people, greatly facilitate the smooth flow of people and goods, and strongly promote the economic and social development and improvement of people's livelihood in Croatia. It will also bring the Chinese and Croatian people closer and become a new bridge to promote friendship between the two countries.

Plenkovic said that it is an historic day, Croatia has realized the long-cherished dream of connecting the northern and southern territories, and greatly reduced the travel time from other parts of Croatia to southern Croatia, which will have an important impact on the transportation, tourism and economy of southern Croatia.

The Peljesac Bridge and its linking-up road project is about 3.94 kilometers in length, of which the bridge is 2440 meters long and 22.5 meters wide. The project will stretch across the Little Stone Bay in the Adriatic Sea, and connect the Croatian territory across the sea. The bridge is a six-pyloned cable-stayed bridge with four lanes and a design speed of 80 kilometers per hour. It is the largest transportation infrastructure project built by Chinese enterprises in Croatia since the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Croatia, and also a model project of tripartite market cooperation among China, Croatia and the EU.

The opening of the bridge has made all cities in Croatia connected and greatly contributed to the development of tourism. In 2022, Croatia saw an unprecedented peak in the number of tourists and the development of tourism increased Croatia's income.

The project adopts Chinese steel structures. The total weight of the structures is more than 70,000 tons, equivalent to the steel used in 10 Eiffel Towers.

The project has employed many local graduates, 30-plus local senior engineers, outreach workers and translators. The project has cooperated with 17 professional organizations, providing more than 1,500 direct and indirect jobs, bringing tangible benefits to local people and training a large number of infrastructure talents.

During the construction, a number of innovations were created. A total of 24 patents were approved and 30 major innovations were created.

There are more than 26 species of fish living in the Adriatic Sea, and oyster and fish farming industries are well developed in the region. Dolphins, turtles, corals and various fish live in the sea, and the sea is listed as an EU marine nature reserve.

The project cooperated with local diving companies to explore the underwater debris at the construction site to clean the construction site, while the innovative design of bubble-curtain noise reduction solved the noise problem of steel pipe piling. These measures were praised by local environmental protection agencies.