Bevanda: These and Future Reforms Require Determination by All

Chairman of the Council of Ministers of BIH Vjekosav Bevanda and his assistants met in Sarajevo today with Director and Regional Coordinator of the World Bank for south-east Europe, Europe and Central Asia Jane Armitage, and informed her on priority activities and on-going reforms in BIH. 

Bevanda stressed his gratitude to the World Bank for all realised projects to date, and added that the Council of Ministers of BIH is opted for cooperation with the World Bank.

Director Armitage said the World Bank is ready to continue cooperating with Bosnia and Herzegovina, and that it will provide for USD 200 million in the future period for the public spending development policy assistance programmes, under condition that a new Stand-By Arrangement is concluded with the IMF, as it was a requirement from 2010.

“The World Bank wants to have guarantees connected to a structural approach in order to ensure sustainability of Entity Budgets”, Armitage said. She reminded that the focus areas from the previous period were the promotion of cash transfers targeting, which is necessary for introduction of guidance and property census, decrease of fiscal deficit and creation of fiscal space for growth to allow poverty reduction, as well as for the pension system reform and possible funding of health sector.

Pointing that the Council of Ministers of BIH has over the past three months taken a series of programmes and measures already in implementation, Chairman Bevanda said that the determination of the Council of Ministers of Bosnia and Herzegovina is already evident through these measures, but that future reforms require also personal commitment of all-level authorities if goods results are to be achieved.

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