prijava
SARAJEVO, September 9 (FENA) - US State Department Special Envoy for the Western Balkans and US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Matthew Palmer, after meeting with members of the BiH Presidency and members of both houses of the BiH Parliamentary Assembly, met with BiH Council of Ministers Chairman Zoran Tegeltija and entity prime ministers Fadil Novalić and Radovan Višković.
Novalić said after the meeting that the focus of the talks was a return to economic reforms.
“We are witnesses that economic reforms have receded somewhat before the coronavirus pandemic, somewhat before the local elections, but the only thing that society can count on as a sure base for further progress is the economy,” said FBiH Prime Minister Novalić.
He told reporters that the meeting with Palmer also discussed larger public investments of the international community, reduction of workload, health care reform and reform of public companies, which, as he said, are a significant part of the inefficiency of the economy of this society.
“When they asked us what we would like the United States to help us with, we said that, in addition to the economy, Euro-Atlantic integration at the foreign level and fight against corruption at the domestic level,” said Novalić.
By that, he added, we mean, first of all, the judicial system and the public sector, which is cumbersome and generates the highest percentage of corruption.
Meetings with officials of the international community, Novalić explained, represent the acquisition of a general view of BiH, from various factors.
“Our request is clear, we want medium-term budget support from the European Union, as Belarus received with a grace period of 15 years and with interest rates close to zero, in order to guarantee social peace in the next six to seven years, and not only this or next year when we have consequences of COVID-19 pandemic,” Novalić emphasized.
The second, he added, is long-term credit financing, under very favorable conditions for investment works, which are not only Corridor Vc and energy facilities for which sources of financing have already been secured. These are additional projects for BiH: railways, gas pipelines, wind farms and more.
“The chances for that are good because we have shown stability: we have preserved our credit rating, we are not much indebted. In any case, even if we do not have budget needs, we do not want to use the capacity of the domestic banking sector for budgets, but to leave it to the economy that we want to help with public investments, transfers, by reducing liabilities and a favorable business environment, which includes reducing parafiscal levies,” he pointed out.
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