The Minister of Communications and Transport of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Edin Forto, said on Thursday after the session of the BiH Council of Ministers that a number of strategic documents from the department of digital development were not adopted, accusing the SNSD ministers of blocking processes important for the country’s development.
Forto said that less than half of the nearly 100 planned items on the agenda were considered, and that strategies related to the development of broadband Internet access and other areas of digital transformation did not pass among the unadopted documents.
“All these points were agreed upon and there was no reason for them to be overturned. This is a continuation of the blocking of the most ordinary but necessary strategic documents in order for society to develop in the digital sphere, in which we are already lagging behind both the region and the rest of Europe,” said Forto.
He stated that the BiH Council of Ministers adopted the text of the interstate agreement between Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Republic of Croatia on the southern gas interconnection, which will be sent to the further ratification procedure in the Presidency of BiH and the Parliamentary Assembly of BiH.
He pointed out, however, that as a representative of Our Party, he voted against the agreement, stressing that before final ratification it is necessary to get answers to several key questions.
“We want clear guarantees, including financial and other technical guarantees, as well as an answer to the question of whether the United States Government really stands behind the investor. If we do not get these answers, we are ready to vote against it in the parliamentary procedure,” said Forto.
Commenting on the initiative to abolish or reduce the fee of three KM per departing passenger at BiH airports, Forto said that this topic was not on the agenda of the session, but that he still supports the request of all four international airports in BiH.
According to him, the abolition or reduction of the fee would enable airports to have a better negotiating position with low-cost airlines in order to maintain existing routes and introduce new ones.
He reminded that earlier he was a proponent of a moratorium on the collection of that fee, but that the current director of the Civil Aviation Directorate of Bosnia and Herzegovina, who is the only authorized proponent of changes, does not support such a solution.
“I will continue to support this initiative and I expect the Directorate for Civil Aviation to assess whether there is a possibility to reduce the fee in order to facilitate negotiations with low-cost companies for airports,” said Forto, Fena writes.
