Novalić and Cormack Sign Memorandum of Understanding between FBiH Government and USAID

Prime Minister of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina Fadil Novalić and U.S. Ambassador to BiH Maureen Cormack signed today in Sarajevo a Memorandum of Understanding between the Federal Government and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), by which the Government commits to implementing the Fiscal Sector Reform Project (FAR) over the next four years, and USAID commits to providing support in its realization.

- Citizens may not consider fiscal sector reform an important priority, but it affects their daily lives - said Ambassador Cormack.

The FAR project pertains to the entire Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the same memoranda were signed in the Brčko District and Banja Luka.

- Public finance reforms are necessary for generating revenue. Projects are not easy to achieve, but it is not impossible. Reform is cost-effective - stated the U.S. Ambassador, adding that the U.S. helped for the first time in fiscal reform in 1996 and contributed to an almost ninety percent increase in direct tax revenue.

- One of the effects of the project should be the simplification of the payment system and greater transparency in the area of public revenues so that taxpayers know how their money is spent - Cormack stated.

She praised the adoption of the Reform Agenda and stated that these steps lead towards Bosnia and Herzegovina's membership in the European Union.

- Prime Minister, you are also facing a difficult labor market reform, and the United States supports you in that - said Cormack, addressing Fadil Novalić after the signing of the Memorandum.

Regarding this project and other USAID engagements in BiH, he said they are best defined as assistance from the American people to the people of Bosnia and Herzegovina, as former U.S. President Bill Clinton once stated, after the governments of the two countries reached an agreement on mutual cooperation through USAID on May 3, 1996.

- The FAR project is a continuation of activities that have already yielded very significant results, and the reforms will, among other things, result in a reduction of fiscal burdens through the reduction of parafiscal levies, better management of public debt, strengthening of the FBiH treasury system, improvement of the business environment, and simplification of tax payment - emphasized FBiH Prime Minister Fadil Novalić on this occasion.