Hadžić: Census is Technical Issue – October Deadline Has No Alternative



Minister of Communications and Transport of BIH Damir Hadžić met in Sarajevo today with Director of the Agency for Statistics of BIH Zdenko Milinović and Deputy Head of Delegation of the European Union in BIH Renzo Daviddi, with whom he discussed preparations for the Census of Population in BIH.

 

Minister Hadžić reiterated the commitment of the Council of Ministers of BIH to hold the Census of Population this October, and underlined that this deadline has no alternative. He said that the Census of population is just a technical instrument that can give us a clear view of the social capital status in Bosnia and Herzegovina, but it is an instrument that is politically overhyped.

 

Director Milinović informed Minister Hadžić and Deputy Head of EU Delegation in BIH Daviddi of the census preparatory activities, implemented by the Agency for Statistics of BIH. He stressed that the Agency for Statistics of BIH harmonised its preparatory activities and Census methodology with recommendations of the International Monitoring Operation, adding that all documents necessary for smooth conducting of the October Census are in place, and they are to be verified by the Council of Ministers. He said that the Agency for Statistics has prepared a plan of Census activities, questionnaires, defined the procedures for election of Census bodies, and revised financial plan of the census.

 

Deputy Head of the EU Delegation in BIH Daviddi said this Census is very important to the European Union, as it is to Bosnia and Herzegovina in the context of the accession process. He emphasised that the EU is directly involved in the preparatory activities, via EUROSTAT, and the International Monitoring Operation team. The Head of the EU Delegation in BIH Daviddi shares views of Minister Hadžić that the Census is a technical issue and that it has to be held in October, and stressed that the EU plans to allocate additional EUR 7.5 million for the purposes of the census.

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