Nikšić: We want to rebuild destroyed houses before winter and prevent mass layoffs!

For every mark collected in the account of the FBiH Government, as long as I am Prime Minister, it will be known what it was spent on and where it went, Nermin Nikšić, Prime Minister of the Federation of BiH, stated for the Bosnian news agency Patria (NAP). He emphasizes that the Government is fully committed to remedying the consequences of the unprecedented natural disaster that hit BiH last month. 

- The goal of the Federation Government is to rebuild all destroyed houses before winter and to prevent mass layoffs of workers in companies that have suffered damage – says Nikšić.

The FBiH Employment Bureau is already preparing a program aimed at helping employers, and the Government will, he states, try to secure as many funds as possible for these purposes, while the reconstruction of destroyed houses will begin as soon as they receive data on the damages. Funds for these purposes are already being secured.

According to his words, the government of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina is urgently preparing draft laws that will ensure a legislative framework for efficient and transparent reconstruction and assistance to the affected population.

- We are preparing a set of laws that will primarily address this topic, namely the law on establishing a Fund that will manage the funds, the law on financing aid to endangered areas with very clear criteria, and the law on real estate disposal, which aims to ensure conditions for the free allocation of land for the construction of houses for families who have lost their homes – says Nikšić.  

He will discuss these activities tomorrow with the prime ministers of the cantons and the mayors of municipalities that have declared a state of natural disaster.

- Not a single mark from the FBiH Government will be spent without knowing where it ended up, and I want to establish such a system with lower levels of government that will be key in implementing reconstruction activities. We want to help municipalities and cantons to direct all their resources together with FBiH towards aid and reconstruction, because we must use all domestic reserves for these purposes – Nikšić emphasized to Patria.

The FBiH Government will, as he announced, make a decision on Thursday to introduce a moratorium on the repayment of international loans for the Sarajevo, Posavina, Zenica-Doboj, and Tuzla cantons, which will postpone the repayment of the principal of these loans for four years.

- In this way, in these four cantons, 52 million marks will be saved during this period, and I expect that at least half of these funds will be invested by the cantons in reconstruction, and the FBiH Government will also demand this from them – Nikšić states for NAP.