Borovac – Dowgieelewicz: Return of Refugees and Displaced Persons Priority of BIH



Minister for Human Rights and Refugees of BIH Semiha Borovac talked in Sarajevo with Vice-Governor of the Council of Europe Development Bank (CEB) Mikolay Dowgielewicz on projects for closing of collective centres in BIH and on Regional Housing Programme, financed by the CEB in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Minister Borovac said that the closing of collective centres is one among priority projects of the Ministry for Human Rights and refugees of BIH. She emphasised that it is a very complex project which integrates 70-subprojects implemented in 40 municipalities. It covers closing of 122 collective centres in BIH, construction of 82 residential buildings to provide permanent housing for 2,700 families or about 7,500 persons.

Vice-Governor Dowgielewicz expressed his pleasure with cooperation with the Ministry for Human Rights and Refugees of BIH on these projects. He added that additional efforts need to be taken at the Entity level for removal of administrative barriers for project implementation, especially as regards the Regional Housing Programme.

Minister Borovac informed Vice-Governor Dowgielewicz that the project beneficiaries selection process, from among 26,000 received applications, is to be completed soon. She added that in cooperation with UNHCR, 170 beneficiaries were selected for the first phase of the project and beneficiaries were selected for the second phase, currently pending a formal verification by relevant Entity committees.

She stressed that BIH has already completed administrative procedure for tax free grant funds for the Regional Housing Programme first phase implementation, and that the Ministry for Human Rights and Refugees of BIH will start a procedure for the overall VAT free project, in order to shorten related administrative procedures and speed-up its implementation.

The meeting was attended by Deputy Minister for Human Rights and Refugees of BIH Predrag Jović, CEB Deputy Manager for Loans and Social Development Stephan Sellen, CEB Manager for BIH and Georgia Jasmina Glišović, while Entity Ministers Edin Ramić and Davor Čordaš, and representative of the Brčko District in the Council of Ministers of BIH Siniša Kisić joined them in the course of the meeting.

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