On the last day of the 22nd annual Meeting of the Board of Governors of the European Bank for Development and Construction (EBRD), which is being held in Istanbul, the BiH delegation, led by Deputy Chairman of the BIH Council of Ministers and Minister of Foreign Affairs Zlatko Lagumdžija, a bilateral meeting with the EBRD team responsible for local projects and protection of the environment (MEI) was held.
In a discussion dedicated to the implementation of concrete projects in local communities, Lin O’Grady, the Deputy Director of the MEI team of EBRD said that the speed of implementation of these projects does not follow the pace of the projects that are being held at the level of BiH.
The common position is to accelerate these projects, and Lagumdžija offered further involvement in accelerating the implementation and administration of individual projects that should be launched in BiH.
At the meeting, they discussed a number of projects that are waiting to be implemented, and following the conclusions of the meetings of EBRD representatives, they said that with the help of BiH institutions and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of BIH, they expect the forthcoming projects of the construction of sewer networks and treatment plants for wastewater projects in Cazin and central heating in Pale that are characterized as one of the core projects of EBRD in BiH.
There is also the speeding up of procedures for a water supply project in Čapljina, which refers to the expansion of water supply and implementation of projects of the Directorate for Roads of Canton Sarajevo-extending twelve transversal (Stupska LooP and south longitudinal (Vrbanja-Hrasno) that is not yet effective, as well as project modernization and replacement of Sarajevo’s water supply and canalization that has not been active for years.
They agreed that is it necessary to exert extra effort in the next months in order to ensure that by the arrival of the EBRD delegation at the highest level in BiH, the realization of these projects has begun.
Lagumdžija has expressed interest that in the next annual session of the Committee that projects and business opportunities in BiH should be presented at a separate session, and to be exclusively devoted to BiH.
The EBRD delegation and financial funds once more expressed satisfaction with the exceptional progress in BiH and implementing projects financed by the bank, which was particularly evident in the last year, and expressed support for the idea of an organization of a business presentation of BiH at the next conference.
They said that BiH is one of the most successful countries in implementing EBRD projects in the last period, and expects the country to continue at this rate in the future, and that the time when the loan funds wait several years for implementation is in the past.
The participation of the BIH delegation at the conference, with representatives of 64 member countries of EBRD was assessed to be very successful.
It was concluded that the results open the door for a new investment cycle in the future in various sectors, which would ensure the continuity of investment in existing successful projects, as well as to open the opportunity for the financing of new ones.
They agreed that these activities should lead to a more positive economic situation and more dynamic investment climate in our country, according to a press release from the BiH Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
