Action plan for Podrinje by end of March

BELGRADE - An action plan for project Podrinje, which will help improve life in 30 municipalities in Serbia and Republika Srpska, one of two political entities in Bosnia-Herzegovina, will be completed by the end of March, Serbia's Minister of Economy Zeljko Sertic has said.

After signing last week an annex of a protocol related to the project, with Republika Srpska's Minister for Economic Relations and Regional Cooperation Zlatan Klokic, Sertic told reporters that working groups had already been created and project topics prepared.

The project Podrinje covers 15 municipalities from Serbia and Republika Srpska and involves joint activities and cooperation in 7 areas - infrastructure, agriculture, tourism, energy, environment protection, healthcare and culture.

"This is not just about investment projects, but also about legally defined cooperation, commodity and services exchange and by-laws that we can alter to make that exchange faster and simpler," he said, adding that the goal was to raise the economic relations between Serbia and Republika Srpska to a much higher level.

The trade between Serbia and Republika Srpska was at EUR 600 million last year and there is room for a significant increase to that figure, he pointed out.

Sertic said he and Klokic had discussed Serbia's experience in privatisation and benkruptcy, since Republika Srpska had similar issues.

The goal of the project Podrinje is to develop an area whose population exceds 1.3 million, and the project is also in line with European tendencies regarding cooperation between neighbours, Klokic remarked.

The basic goal of the project is to improve life for the population in the area and use the huge potential and opportunities for development...