The Chairman of the Council of Ministers of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), Zoran Tegeltija, stated yesterday in Sarajevo that there will be no shortage of any type of productson the market of BiH, regardless of whether it is food or energy.
After a meeting with the prime ministers of Republika Srpska (RS) and the Federation of BiH (FBiH), Radovan Viskovic and Fadil Novalic, Tegeltija said that when it comes to the jump in prices, they will try to act through margins, as well as from stocks owned by the entities, subsidies. The meeting was also attended by the Minister of Foreign Trade and Economic Relations of BiH, Stasa Kosarac.
”It will be important to encourage spring sowing, and it is very important that agricultural budgets be increased and that allocations for regressed fuel be increased, as well as for the purchase of artificial fertilizers and raw materials,” Tegeltija stated.
The problems of wood processors, specifically roundwood, were discussed at the meeting. Tegeltija announced that the export of roundwood from BiH will be banned by the end of the year.
According to him, the proposal to make a decision on banning the export of roundwood by December 31st this year was agreed, because wood processors and furniture manufacturers pointed out the lack of raw materials due to problems that arose during import.
As he said, the decision should be made at the session of the Council of Ministers on Friday, March 18th, and it would take effect immediately.
Tegeltija also reminded of the problem of lack of mineral fertilizer and added that it was agreed that the Council of Ministers would make a decision on duty-free import of 100.000 tons of mineral fertilizer.
He confirmed that public administration reform, the fiscal framework, and the final procedure for selecting projects within the economic and investment plan for the Western Balkans were also discussed yesterday, for which grant funds were approved.
”21 projects were approved for the countries of the Western Balkans, of which Serbia received seven, and BiH five projects. The value of approved grant funds is more than 1.1 billion euros, of which 395 million euros relate to BiH,” Tegeltija added.
He explained that these are five projects in BiH and that four are related to the “Vc” Corridor, and the fifth is for the reconstruction of the railway from Doboj to Samac.
Speaking about the problem of Trgovska Gora, Tegeltija emphasized that it was decided yesterday to send a joint statement to the European Commission and Croatian institutions, in order to express dissatisfaction with the intention of the Croatian authorities to build a radioactive waste dump in the area near the border.
He reminded that talks with Croatia have been going on for a long time, but that there are no concrete agreements, and that BiH is not giving up on the fact that it will prevent the construction of a landfill in that area with all available means.
Noting that 1.1 million BAM is needed for the work of the expert team in this area, Tegeltija said that a decision was made yesterday to provide one-third of the financial resources to the entities and the level of BiH.
