Dr. Lagumdzija – Krkoska: Organizing donor conference in the near future necessary in order to assist B&H in alleviating consequences of the worst floods ever



On 20 May 2014, Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers and Ministers of Foreign Affairs of Bosnia and Herzegovina Dr. Zlatko Lagumdzija discussed with Director of B&H Office of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) Libor Krkoska.

Interlocutors agreed that it is necessary to organize a donor conference in order to assist Bosnia and Herzegovina in alleviating consequences of the worst floods ever which struck B&H in the last few days. The donor conference would gather potential donors, representatives of international financial, humanitarian and other organizations and countries in one place and it could be organized immediately after the flood impact assessment is done and this, according to expert opinions, will require a few weeks.  

Dr. Lagumdzija emphasized that assistance to flood-affected population in Bosnia and Herzegovina should be implemented in two phases. The first phase includes an urgent, humanitarian assistance that will contribute to providing shelters and supplying water to people, preventing infections and epidemics after flood water withdrawal, basic medical assistance to population affected by floods and enabling functioning of basic communications. The second phase, that will take longer, refers to assistance concerning recovery of damages and reconstruction of flood-affected areas in the country. Apart from reconstruction of destroyed or damaged public facilities such as hospitals, schools, infrastructure etc., special attention should be paid to finding the method to assist private sector not only concerning the recovery and reconstruction of their housing facilities but also their private businesses which are totally destroyed and now people in private sector are only the owners of unpaid bank loans for housing or business. Huge problems are farmers and small entrepreneurs who sustained enormous damages and for which the state and international community must find the way to lend a hand of support.  Krkoska expressed EBRD`s readiness to make reallocation of funds in the framework of planned investment strategy for B&H and distribute them as assistance for revitalization of   consequences that appeared due to floods, recovery and reconstruction and together with other international financial institutions, and in cooperation with B&H authorities, seek new options to find necessary resources.