Construction on the ‘Arben Xhaferi’ highway - named after a late Albanian politician in Macedonia - started on Thursday with a ceremony inaugurated by Kosovo Prime Minister Hashim Thaci and state officials from Macedonia in Fushe Kosove/Kosovo Polje.

“Today is a special day for Kosovo, it is a blessed day,” Thaci said after symbolically beginning work on the 60-kilometre highway.

The highway is being built by US-Turkish consortium Bechtel-Enka at a fixed price of 599,944,263 euro.

The same consortium recently completed a highway linking Kosovo and Albania.

Macedonian Deputy Prime Minister Musa Xhaferi said the highway was important "because it connects Albanians in both countries".

"It will create a political, social, economic and brotherly cohesion," he added.

The Kosovo ministry of infrastructure, meanwhile, has promised to make the contract available for public viewing — something that wasn’t done for the highway to Albania.

The previous contract with Bechtel-Enka drew criticism because is was officially made public. It was later revealed that it contained provisions highly favourable to Bechtel-Enka, which led to a soaring price tag.