ZUKIC: OHR IS OBLIGED TO IMPLEMENT THE CIVILIAN COMPONENT OF THE ANNEX 7

SARAJEVO, Bosnia (October 30,2008) - The Office of the International Community's High Representative in Bosnia (OHR) is obliged to implement the civilian component of the Annex 7 of the Dayton Agreement which is the return process, stated at the press conference,the President of the Boanian association of refugees, displaced persons and returnees, Mirhunisa Zukic.

Zukic also stated that the political factor was the limit and that it did not allow for the process to complete.

"Current strategy for the implementation of Annex 7 clearly stated the carriers of the return process and gave responsibilities, which are state ministry and local government. However, neither one nor the other do their jobs because we have a lot of political influence and people in local communities come from political parties and that is why we have ethnically ecclusive areas”, stated Zukic.

Many municipal mayor do not know that people have returned nor have any care for them, stated Zukic and added that one of the biggest problems is to secure sustainable return and employment for returnees.

Bosnia has 43.000 families waiting for reconstruction of their homes, 2.550 families, or about 7.000 Bosnian citizens live in collective and alternative placements, 2.750 returnees’ households live without electric energy and only 1% of returnees are employed in public management.
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326 PEOPLE KILLED ON BOSNIAN ROADS IN NINE MONTHS OF 2008

SARAJEVO, Bosnia (October 30,2008) - In nine months of 2008 in traffic accidents 326 people were killed in Bosnia, while 9.075 persons sustained severe or minor injuries.

On Bosnian roads in the period January-September there were 30.510 traffic accidents out of which 24.159 with material damage.

Each day, about 111 accidents occur, out of which 23 accidents have deadly outcome or people sustaining severe or minor injuries.
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EU TO INVEST 300 MILLION EUROS IN BOSNIA

SARAJEVO, Bosnia (October 30,2008) - The European Union has clear intentions to invest more money through European banks into various projects in Bosnia, including capital infrastructure projects, Head of the EC Delegation to Bosnia Dimitris Kourkoulas confirmed yesterday.

"We know that the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the European Investment Bank have rather large funds available to invest in Bosnia and infrastructural projects", he said.

To be further added to this are 300 million Euros earmarked for Bosnia through pre-accession assistance, Kourkoulas pointed out. He also confirmed that a strategy is being drafted for the future international engagement in Bosnia.
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SEVERAL FOREIGN COMPANIES INTERESTED IN INVESTING IN OIL EXPLORATION IN BOSNIA

SARAJEVO, Bosnia (October 30,2008) - Five very serious offers have arrived to Bosnia's largest energy company Energoinvest’s call for expression of interest in gas and oil exploration in Bosnia, the company’s assistant general manager Ibrahim Bosto has confirmed.

The companies that have submitted offers include Houston Transglobal Petroleum, Canadian Longview Capital Partners (more precisely, their company Seed Rock), Dutch Delta Hydrocarbons, Hungarian Mol and Croatian Ina.

During the call period, several other companies were making enquiries, which means even more offers could arrive once an international tender is announced (by the end of 2008), Bosto said, adding that Longview Capital Partners seem the most eager for now.

The company has recently sent a delegation to the Bosnian capital Sarajevo, announcing readiness to invest up to 100 million US Dollars in the final stage of exploration alone. The other offers are close to that, ranging between 80 and 100 million US Dollars.
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BOSNIA AND JORDAN SIGNED AGREEMENT ON COOPERATION IN TOURISM

AMMAN, Jordan (October 30,2008) - The Bosnian Minister of Foreign Trade Mladen Zirojevic and Jordan’s Tourism Minister Maha Al Khatib signed an agreement in Amman,Jordan, yesterday about cooperation in tourism.

The agreement aims to expand and strengthen cooperation between two countries in this area, and identify those issues that a are a burden on bilateral cooperation. Minister Zirojevic also presented Bosnia’s tourism potential to his Jordanian hosts.
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