Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers of BIH and Minister of Finance and Treasury Dr Nikola Špirić met in Sarajevo today with Ambassador of Italy in BIH Raimondo De Cardona.
They assessed that BIH and Italy have good bilateral cooperation, and that a series of possibilities exist for improvement of economic ties between the two countries.
Ambassador De Cardona pointed at an interest among Italian investors to invest in BIH, where, up to know about EUR 120 million have been invested, whereas possibilities are much larger, as Italy has investments worth EUR 3 billion in Serbia only.
According to Ambassador De Cardona, Italian investors are particularly interested for investments in the energy sector in the region, where BIH can take a significant place in relevant projects.
Minister Špirić underlined that he endorses the projects that open a possibility for improvement of a real economic cooperation, and that such approach was taken in development of the 2012 Budget, which is restrictive one and implies reduction of expenses of administration.
The Minister of Finance and Treasury of BIH stressed that conditions better favouring economic development will be created once the savings in public administration are realised and long-term solutions found to the issues caused, among other things, by poor legislation inconsistent with the best international practice. Špirić reminded at a Word Bank assessment of Amendments and Supplements to the Law on Service in the BIH Armed Forces.
He added that under that Law, the dismissed BIH soldiers are able to retire at age of 35, in the face of a fact that the retirement age in some European countries was lifted to up 70 years of age.
They agreed that BIH should move faster on European integrations road, and Špirić underlined that such determination is obvious also in the 2012 Draft Budget, which provides for funds for the Census of Citizens and Households, local elections, and construction of border crossings towards the EU, i.e. neighbouring Croatia.
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