The Prime Minister of FBiH Fadil Novalic talked about the new reform program “three times three”, the intention to channel money from the road construction companies, and relations within the coalition.
“The reform path was established through a Reform Agenda that contains 61 measures. This is a long-term strategy intended to be implemented in several years. It is a fact that no reform can be implemented in only 4 years. We do not have a magic stick to solve all the accumulated problems. We have to go step by step, which is why we have set priorities by the end of this mandate,” stated Novalic.
He noted that they are planning the adoption of at least three reforms and three social laws and the launch of three groups of infrastructure projects to support economic growth in BiH in the upcoming period.
“Three reform measures are directed towards the increase of the number of employees, i.e. the Law on Contributions, the Law on Income Taxes, and the Law on the Basis of Health Insurance. These laws are key for solving gray cash flows. We cannot build economic growth in the area of social unrest and therefore we have foreseen three social laws. These are the Law on Pension Fund and the two laws on the war veterans for the establishment of a register and increase of the representation of the associations. When it comes to infrastructure projects, priorities will be the two thermal power plants in Tuzla and Banovici. Among these projects is the construction of motorways as well. I think that it is realistic to expect that our current economic growth of 3.2 % will increase to 5.5 or 6 %.”
Until now, amendments to the Law on Excises that guarantee a significant acceleration of road construction have not been adopted, and thus we decided to look for funds for the development of infrastructure from other sources. We decided to rely on revenues from the accumulated or undistributed profits of public companies and we will adopt it soon at the level of the Government and start with the revision of the budget for this year. These are funds for reinvestment that public companies already have in their accounts and they already expressed their willingness to invest in the development of the FBiH.
We selected several priority roads with whose construction we can start immediately and which will contribute the most to economic growth and that will further facilitate work for our businessmen. To be specific, these are the fast road Sarajevo – Gorazde, a roundabout near Mostar, a part of Sarajevo transversal that was not completed due to lack of funds, and the fast road Zepce – Tuzla.”
The government decided that even if the possibility of taking a loan without additional conditions is opened, we should analyze it well and put the budget liquidity in the first place. It does not make sense to risk, for example, the regularity of pensions. That is why we insist to wait on the adoption of excise taxes so that we can be sure that we have the funds to repay the loan.
(Source: Radiosarajevo.ba)
