SAVA RIVER INITIATIVE PROJECT PRESENTED IN WASHINGTON

WASHINGTON, March 14 (Hina) - Representatives of the U.S. administration and Washington diplomats and financiers on Thursday expressed interest in projects from the Sava Initiative, which focuses on the joint use and preservation of the Sava river. #L# A round-table debate was held at the Croatian Embassy in Washington attended by representatives of the embassies of Croatia, Slovenia, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Austria, Macedonia, Germany, and Romania, the State Department, many United States government agencies, and international financial institutions. The Sava Initiative is a transborder plan for the management of the river which Bosnia, Croatia, Serbia and Montenegro, and Slovenia agreed on and signed a framework accord about on December 3 last year. The objective of the Initiative, which has been endorsed by the Stability Pact for South Eastern Europe, is to make the Sava and its tributaries commercially navigable while protecting the environment and preserving the water along more than 600 navigable kilometres. The round-table debate was aimed at motivating the political, diplomatic and business communities in Washington, said Ivan Grdesic, Croatian ambassador to the U.S. An action plan addressed at a similar meeting in Brussels on Wednesday envisages spending EUR180 million on concrete projects within the Initiative over the next one to six years. The U.S. has donated US$200,000 for the Initiative to date and intends to donate at least twice as much this year. The U.S. Agency for Trade and Development has also expressed interest in the project and could link interested U.S. companies with concrete Initiative projects. The Sava Initiative framework agreement has to be ratified by the signatory countries' parliaments, while the countries participating in the venture have to set up a commission for the Sava river basin which will implement the agreement. (hina) ha sb