Leaders of the SDA, HDZ and SNSD parties in the presence of the entity prime ministers, Chairman of the Council of Ministers of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the state finance minister after an hour-long meeting with EU and IMF officials agreed on a 330 million euros loan facility to fight the crisis caused by the coronavirus, Klix.ba news portal reports.
Although the agreement on the allocation of money was to be achieved by the entities on a regular basis, the problem occurred when HDZ party, which demanded that “cantons” in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina be incorporated into the agreement, which was a whole new practice, given that in previous arrangements with the IMF, it was never done.
HDZ party chairman Dragan Covic thanked the ambassadors without whom, he said, there would be no agreement on 330 million euros.
“It will share 38 percent for Republika Srpska, 62 for the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, with Brcko going half the percentage of the entities. As for the FBiH, 50 percent go to the cantons and 50 percent to the Federation of BiH,” Covic said, adding that he currently sits in Fiscal Council to formally approve the loan.
Finally, EU, IMF and US Embassy representatives in our country became involved in the process, trying to relax and unblock the process and send a concerted Letter of Intent. The deadline for applying for a 330 million euro loan is April 16th. A letter of intent, of course, should be sent before that date. Governor of the Central Bank of BiH, Senad Softic, said that 90 countries of the world are currently seeking IMF money.
