Dr. Cerić: Negligence must be stopped!

Dr. Mustafa Cerić, an independent candidate for the Bosniak member of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina, held an election rally in Tuzla on Sunday evening, reports the BH news agency Patria.

In the city of salt, industry, and the city with the highest unemployment rate, in the city from which the revolt of the dissatisfied people began, Dr. Cerić spoke about the economy and his plans on how to get things moving and how to ensure a better tomorrow for the young and old, for students, workers, and pensioners.

- Bosnia and Herzegovina can make a breakthrough in economic and social development and ensure a better quality of life for all people living in it in a relatively short period. The authorities have neglected this fact for the last 20 years, and instead of the truth, they offer us a story about how unemployment is decreasing, that our citizens are enjoying increasing security, that our country is a respected member of the international community. We all know that this is not even close to the truth - said Dr. Cerić.

It is sad and incomprehensible, he added, that the current authorities do not care about the alarming statistics, according to which the number of children enrolled in primary schools in the Federation of BiH has decreased from 223,000, as enrolled in 2010, to as many as 197,000 last year. In Tuzla schools alone, 6,000 fewer children were enrolled last year than three years ago.

- On the contrary, the number of unemployed is growing, and in the Tuzla Canton, it has already reached 100,000. Isn't that a call for sobriety, for urgent action? It is no wonder that the wave of dissatisfaction, the wave of protests, started precisely from Tuzla, and it is from this very place that I want to tell the authorities that we will not allow or tolerate their negligence and sloppiness - emphasized Dr. Cerić.

The best proof of negligence, besides the unsuccessfully implemented privatization process and the collapse of hundreds of large companies, he added, is unfortunately also the latest decision of the European Union institutions on the distribution of 11 billion euros from pre-accession (IPA) funds for the period from 2014 to 2020.

- Albania will receive 650 million euros, Macedonia 660 million, Kosovo 640 million, Serbia 1.5 billion, and Turkey as much as 4.5 billion euros. Bosnia and Herzegovina is not included in these plans. No one mentions it. We should not blame the officials of the European Union for this, but the current authorities, for whom it is easiest to seek loans and indebt the country, rather than propose concrete projects and take the offered funds for them - stated Dr. Cerić.

He also presented his plan, Plan '4Plus', for the gradual exit of Bosnia and Herzegovina from the crisis. The plan proposes concrete steps that would pave the way for foreign investments, but also solve the issue of economic obstacles in our country through comprehensive reform of the labor market. The plan certainly includes new jobs, based on concrete economically sound principles, not on false promises.

- Plan '4Plus' is based on four pillars - work, order, development, and equality. Economic experts, domestic experts worked on the development of this plan, and it offers concrete solutions. One of the first solutions is the creation of new jobs by reducing taxes on labor, which is an obstacle to stronger employment. I certainly advocate for combating undeclared work, as the worst form of worker exploitation - stated Dr. Cerić.

He added that Plan '4Plus' also envisages a decisive fight against corruption, strengthening the legal system, and a decisive fight against poverty.

- All this is possible if we all unite in Bosnia and Herzegovina, not only through parties, but if political forces unite to raise work, order, development, and equality to the highest level of political and moral responsibility. This applies especially to Bosniak political parties, which are divided and which fragment Bosniak political thought about existing parties. The call for unity from such parties is not a call for the unity of Bosniaks, but for narrow party interests - said Dr. Cerić and added:

- Unlike them, we call for the unity of Bosniak political thought, and as a stake for this, I offer my knowledge, experience, and connections at home and around the world.