Government allocates 90 million KM: Public call for aid to tourism, agriculture...

(Patria) - Federal Ministries of Environment and Tourism and Agriculture, Water Management and Forestry have, based on the Decree on emergency measures to support endangered sectors of the economy of FBiH in the circumstances of the COVID-19 pandemic, today announced public calls for submitting applications for financial aid of 30,000,000 KM to endangered business entities from the tourism and catering sector and 10,000,000 KM from the agricultural and food sector. Hotels, travel agencies, tour operators, and tour guides are eligible to participate in the public call for the tourism and catering sector, which will be open for 21 days from the date of publication.

All interested parties can download this call from the website of the Federal Ministry of Environment and Tourism. The Federal Minister of Environment and Tourism, Edita Đapo, said that she is very pleased that her months-long engagement and work on helping the tourism sector has resulted in concrete assistance.

- I am also grateful to my colleagues in the Government of FBiH who supported me when I asked for help for tourism, as well as to the representatives of tourism entrepreneurs who were patient. I was engaged almost all summer in finding ways to help workers in tourism. Tourism entrepreneurs are satisfied with the amount of aid, which will mean for most of them that they will not have to close their businesses and lay off workers. The pandemic will leave negative consequences, and we must all fight together for every job - said Đapo.

Eligible to participate in the public call of the Federal Ministry of Agriculture, Water Management and Forestry, which is published on the ministry's website and will also be open for 21 days from the date of publication, are export-oriented companies, cooperatives, crafts, and other legal entities that achieved exports exceeding 30 percent of their total revenue in the previous year (own production, purchase, or processing of agricultural and food products from the territory of FBiH).

This applies to meat and meat products (beef, pork, lamb, and goat), milk and dairy products, poultry meat and their products, fish (marine and freshwater) and their products, fruits and fruit products, grapes and olives and their products, vegetables and their products, honey and other beekeeping products, medicinal and aromatic herbs and their products, and mushrooms and their products.

To be eligible for aid, the beneficiary must, among other things, be registered in the Register of Agricultural Holdings (RPG) or Register of Clients (RK) and registered as a legal entity, cooperative, craft, or other legal entity from the agricultural and food sector. The criterion for awarding aid is the value of exports in the period from 1 January to 31 December 2019, specifically the percentage share in exports, of formally correct individual applications in relation to the total export value of all formally correct applications for the value of own production, purchased or processed agricultural and food products from the territory of FBiH. Based on the obtained percentage, the amount of financial aid for each applicant will be calculated, up to 60 percent of the total available financial resources.

The second criterion is the number of employees of the beneficiary as of 30 September 2020, based on the percentage share of formally correct individual applications of beneficiaries in relation to the total number of employees in companies, cooperatives, crafts, and other legal entities from the agricultural and food sector whose applications are formally correct. Based on the obtained percentage, the amount of financial aid for each applicant will be calculated, up to 40 percent of the total available financial resources.

The general goals of awarding financial aid are to preserve jobs and provide liquidity support to the most endangered sectors/activities. Business entities will be able to use this aid exclusively for the payment of minimum gross wages and operating costs incurred in the period from 1 July to 31 December 2020. One of the conditions of these public calls is that the beneficiaries of financial aid cannot reduce the number of employees until December 31, 2020, compared to the number of employees as of September 30, 2020.

The total financial resources for the implementation of this decree are secured in the FBiH Budget for 2020 in the amount of 90,000,000 KM, and the maximum amount of aid that can be awarded to one beneficiary under this call cannot exceed 700,000 KM. The Federal Ministry of Energy, Mining and Industry yesterday announced a public call for aid to export-oriented companies in the industrial sector.