SARAJEVO: NO AGREEMENT ON PLOCE PORT PROTOCOL

SARAJEVO, Aug 21 (Hina) - The Presidency of Bosnia-Herzegovina has not adopted a protocol amending an agreement with Croatia which regulates the status of the port of Ploce because the Presidency's Bosniak member Sulejman Tihic put forward new requests at a session in Sarajevo on Thursday. #L# "Unfortunately, we have not been able to come to full agreement," the Serb member of the Presidency, Borislav Paravac, told reporters after the session, recalling that the Council of Ministers of Bosnia-Herzegovina had recommended adopting the protocol in the form as defined previously in talks with the Croatian government. The protocol defines an annex which changes Article 9 of the agreement on Ploce port in that it establishes a new composition of the port's management board, which no longer includes a foreign national with arbitration authorities, who intervenes in case of disputes. Tihic requested that the final text of the protocol precisely define the deadline for the ratification of the whole agreement as well as that the election of the third member of an arbitration commission in charge of possible disputes in the management of the port be defined. "Tihic has actually offered a new protocol which departs from what has been agreed," Paravac said, explaining that the Presidency had decided to analyse the problem again and try to find a suitable solution. He added that all members of the Presidency wanted the process of solving the status of Ploce port to go on, as it was an exceptionally important economic and political issue. Commenting on a decision of the Croatian government to send Bosnian authorities a letter of intent proposing ways to build the part of corridor 5C running through Bosnia-Herzegovina, Paravac said the BH Presidency had not received any document on this matter yet. "The Presidency has discussed this issue for the first time only today," Paravac said. The Presidency also decided that Tihic should talk about the project with the highest Malaysian officials during his upcoming visit to the country. The Bosnian Presidency wants a clear answer as to whether the Malaysian government supports "Bosmal" company as a private firm which is very much interested in the project. Paravac said that regardless of what had been said so far, the project of construction of the Budapest-Ploce highway section running through Bosnia-Herzegovina would be awarded via a public tender. If somebody decides to give 300 million euros for a feasibility study and the settlement of property-rights issues, they have to accept the risk of not landing the job, Paravac said. "Our goal is to obtain a feasibility study and decide in a public tender who will be given the concession," he said. Croatian Prime Minister Ivica Racan was to hand Croatia's letter of intent to the chairman of the Bosnian Council of Ministers, Adnan Terzic, on Friday. After the Bosnian Presidency's refusal of the draft protocol on changes to the Ploce port agreement, officials of the Bosnian Council of Ministers have said that the meeting between Racan and Terzic, scheduled to take place in Kostajnica, will not be held. (hina) rml