BPK Goražde and Foča Revive Cooperation, Tourism a Chance and Returnee Safety Important

In Foča today, the Prime Minister of BPK Goražde, Aida Obuća, and the Mayor of Foča Municipality, Milan Vukadinović, met officially for the first time. The aim of the visit is to revive the dormant cooperation between the areas that are infrastructurally and economically interdependent.

-    I am glad that this visit has taken place. There is plenty of room for cooperation, there are common topics on which we can and should agree, and there are also those on which we will probably never agree and should be set aside, said Vukadinović.

According to him, one of the most important issues for Foča at this moment is the rehabilitation and arrangement of the road towards Montenegro via Šćepan Polje, which is one of the worst and most dangerous roads in BiH. This is a road of great importance for the development of tourism and the utilization of all the potentials of the Tara River.

Prime Minister Obuća agreed that tourism development is one of the key economic sectors where joint projects can be realized. In this direction, it is important to ensure that tourists coming to Gornje Podrinje stay overnight as much as possible. For this, it would be useful to consider some kind of joint offer, especially since the construction of the Catholic church in Goražde opens up a chance for a larger number of visits by believers who want to visit the site of the suffering of the Drina Martyrs.

-    It is important to re-establish institutional cooperation. We could also jointly address the problem of the landfill. This is a problem in Foča, but also in neighboring Ustikolina. Unlike you, I think we should also talk about sensitive topics, especially when they relate to the security situation. I believe that we, as institutions, should do everything through responsible policy to make people feel safe and to jointly distance ourselves from all actions that could cause any person to feel uncomfortable, Obuća emphasized.

When it comes to security, one of the problems is the murals dedicated to war criminals, which are increasingly present in Foča, where there are fewer and fewer Bosniaks who see their livelihood there. Besides security, employment is also a problem where the local community could make a step forward. Only a few Bosniaks are employed in public institutions, and their numbers are also decreasing in the police force.

The delegation from BPK Goražde also included the President of the Assembly, Aida Sirbubalo, and the Minister of Education, Youth, Science, Culture and Sports, Biljana Begović. According to Minister Begović, there is an interest in establishing better cooperation, particularly in terms of assistance and support for the development of children with disabilities, for which there is a particular shortage of professional staff in BPK Goražde.