BOSNIA AND CHINA TO BOOST ECONOMIC TIES

SARAJEVO, Bosnia (September 12,2008) - Bosnia and China agreed today to seek closer economic ties, and a Bosnian official said Bosnia would welcome Chinese investment. Chinese Vice-Premier Zhang Dejiang signed three cooperation deals in the Bosnian capital Sarajevo after a visit to Germany and before heading to Macedonia for talks also expected to focus on trade and investment.

"We agreed that we should significantly strengthen our economic and trade cooperation," Bosnia's Prime Minister Nikola Spiric said.

Both sides agreed to activate a committee to define priorities in economic cooperation, he told reporters.

Bosnia's main trading partners are Croatia, Slovenia, Germany and Italy.

Bosnian authorities will secure equal conditions for Chinese companies to take part in privatizations and the process of building and rebuilding, Spiric said.

Bosnia is interested in investments in power generation, wood processing, tourism and agriculture, he said.

Spiric and Dejiang also signed a cultural cooperation accord and documents to promote mutual investment and human resource exchanges.

Bosnia's Premier Spiric said after the meeting that the two countries should further improve the economic cooperation.

Meetings with the members of the Bosnian State Presidency were also on Dejian's agenda.
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NATO AND US TO FURTHER ASSIST BOSNIA ON ITS PATH TOWARDS FULL NATO MEMBERSHIP

SARAJEVO, Bosnia (September 12,2008) - Members of the Bosnian State Presidency Željko Komšić and Nebojša Radmanović,as well as Adnan Kapo, Adviser to the Cabinet of the Bosnian President Haris Silajdžić met yesterday in the Bosnian capital Sarajevo with Admiral Mark Fitzgerald, Commander of Allied Joint Force Command in Naples. Admiral was accompanied by General-major Richard Wightman, Commander of the NATO HQ in Bosnia,the Bosnian State Presidency said.

At the meeting, parties discussed Bosnia’s Euro-Atlantic integration, to which all political factors expressed their commitment and consent.

Radmanović emphasized, that in spite of a temporary deadlock, over the last period Bosnia has achieved a lot: signed the Stabilisation and Association Agreement (SAA) with the European Union, intensified dialogue for full membership in the NATO, signed Agreement on addressing the issue of military movable and immovable property, thus creating the conditions for solving the issue of superfluous armament i.e. immovable property.

Members of the Bosnian State Presidency also underlined that the question of 1000 military facilities in the country and the change of their purpose is connected to the issue of the entire state property and added that those objects could be used for development of economic and other services.

The two parties also exchanged ideas about the function and future of the Office of the International Community's High Representative in Bosnia (OHR); NATO Headquarters in the Bosnian capital Sarajevo, in other words, the role of the International Community in Bosnia.

Admiral Fitzgerald expressed his thanks to the Members of the Bosnian State Presidency for their engagement in transparent change of command at the Bosnian Armed Forces, emphasizing the readiness of NATO and the US to further assist Bosnia on its path toward full NATO membership.
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CCI: POOR RESULTS OF BOSNIAN COUNCIL OF MINISTERS AND PARLIAMENTARY ASSSEMBLY

SARAJEVO, Bosnia (September 12,2008) - Results of the research done by the Center for Civic Initiative (CCI) shows that the Bosnian State Parliament and the Bosnian Council of Ministers realized certain “progress” in the first six months of 2008 since they would now need 45 years to realize their four year plan instead of 50 according to the pace they had at the end of last year.

CCI spokesperson, Majda Behrem-Stojanov stated that the first half of 2008 was marked by refusal of parliamentarians to increase salaries for themselves and only three months later they increased them by 100% and it was at the moment the public was preoccupied with the arrest of former leader and creator of the genocidal Serbian creature in Bosnia "RS" and one of the masterminds of the genocide against the Bosnian people,Serbian war criminal Radovan Karadzic.

”This showed their incredible cynicism, immorality, greed and social insensitiveness”, stated Stojanov.

Consultant for the work of the Bosnian Council of Ministers, Denis Telic stated that at the Council did not even discuss 85% of laws planned for this year. Out of 24 laws sent into parliamentary procedure by the Bosnian Council of Ministers only 9 of them were adopted.

The lowest rate of realization belongs to the Bosnian Minister of Transport and Communication, Bozo Ljubic with the degree of realization of only 15% of planned activities.

Former Bosnian Minister of Foreign Trade and Economic Relations, Slobodan Puhalac left 90% of his obligations unfinished and in six months he did not realize a single law.

According to the comparison done by CCI, former state parliamentary assembly was efficient from the current one, since in the first six months of 2004 they adopted 43 laws that is 30.2% more then the current parliament.

At the end, Behrem-Stojanov appealed to all Bosnian citizens to vote for those candidates with results behind them and not to listen to pre-election promises.
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2084 BOSNIAN CITIZENS FROM BOSANSKA POSAVINA REGION BANNED FROM VOTING ON LOCAL ELECTIONS IN OCTOBER

SARAJEVO, Bosnia (September 12,2008) - 2084 Bosnian citizens from the region of Bosanska Posavina will not be allowed to vote on local elections in October.

This was decided at the session of the Bosnian Central Election Commission and according to the Bosnian Central Election Commission Director Suad Arnautovic, at this moment it is certain that they will not be allowed to vote in October.

"I suggested for those citizens who fled from this region, 2.084 of them to be entered into the register, to be delivered with an envelope in order to vote. Unfortunately, my proposal did not receive majority votes”, stated Arnautovic.
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CROATIAN WAR CRIMINAL SLAVKO SAKIC ADMITS GUILT

SARAJEVO, Bosnia (September 12,2008) - Croatian war criminal Slavko Sakic made an plea agreement yesterday with the Bosnian State Prosecution in which he admits guilt for the war crimes comitted in the Bosnian town of Bugojno,during the Croatian aggression against Bosnia in the early 1990's.

Under this agreement, the Prosecution requested from the Bosnian State Court to sentence him from seven up to ten years.

Slavko Sakic, a former member of the Croatian fascist aggressor's formations, is indicteed for crimes against the Bosnian civilian population in Bugojno.

In accordance with the indictment, Croatian war criminal Slavko Sakic,participated in the illegal detention of Bosnian civilians from Bugojno, who were later held in the basement of the Akvarijum hotel in Vrbanja settlement.

The Prosecution stated that Croatian war criminal Slavko Sakic "was involved in looting and taking away their money and jewelry by force'' and that he, on the 17 and 28 of July 1993, participated in the torture of detained Bosnian civilians.

Croatian war criminal Slavko Sakic, at the beginning of August denied his guilt in accordance with the prosecution's indictment which was confirmed on 30 July.

He has been in custody since 18 May of this year, when he was arrested in the southwestern Bosnian town of Livno by members of the Bosnian State Investigation and Protection Agency (SIPA).

The agreement has been submitted to the Bosnian State Court for further consideration.
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BOSNIAN CAR MARKET GROWS BY 22%

SARAJEVO, Bosnia (September 12,2008) - Despite growing living costs,car sales in Bosnia are increasing.In the first six months of 2008, 7,458 new cars were sold in Bosnia, which was by 22.3 per cent more compared to the same period of 2007.

The Volkswagen Audi Group accounted for a biggest share of care sales, and Skoda cars were the most popular (among them, Skoda Fabia), accounting for 20.5 per cent of all cars sold in Bosnia in the first half of 2008.
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BOSNIAN STATE FISCAL COUNCIL ESTABLISHED

SARAJEVO, Bosnia (September 12,2008) - The Bosnian State Fiscal Council convened in the Bosnian capital Sarajevo yesterday, for the first time. Its members are the country’s prime minister and state and entity finance ministers, while the Bosnian Central Bank Governor and the Brcko District mayor are observing members of the Council.

This body will coordinate the national fiscal policy, in accordance with the Fiscal Council Act, with the aim of securing macroeconomic and fiscal sustainability of Bosnia, Bosnia's Prime Minister Nikola Spiric said.

The initial tasks of the Council include appointing members of an advisory committee, budget analysis (by September 20) and adoption of the Rules of Procedure (in the following meeting scheduled for September 25).
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COUNCIL OF EUROPE: BOSNIA IS NOT BENEFITING FULLY FROM EUROPEAN INTEGRATION

STRASBOURG, France (September 12,2008) - "Without greater co-operation between the various state and entity-level structures, Bosnia will not be able to benefit fully from European integration", the Monitoring Committee of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) warned yesterday.

In a report prepared by Mevlut Cavusoglu and Kimmo Sasi and adopted in Paris, the Committee regrets stalling reforms in the country, expresses concern over increasing nationalist and ethnic rhetoric, and condemns attempts by the political representatives of the Serbians living in Bosnia to undermine Bosnian national institutions.The report will be discussed on September 30.
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THREE NEW HYDRO POWER STATIONS TO BE BUILT ON THE NERETVA RIVER

SARAJEVO, Bosnia (September 12,2008) - The building of three hydro power systems on the upper Neretva, worth around 1.356 billion Bosnian Marks was rated as justifiable and economically viable by an expert committee of the FBIH entity government yesterday. The committee has accepted a project developed by Intrade energy company.

It is deemed that the project’s environmental impact would be insignificant compared to the new amounts of clean energy available to the market. With a 30-year concession, the return on this investment will be high.
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