SARAJEVO/BANJA LUKA, Sept 13 (Hina) - Bosnia-Herzegovina could be faced with a huge financial crisis caused by increased obligations on the line of internal financial debts, the High Representative for Bosnia, Paddy Ashdown said on
Friday.
SARAJEVO/BANJA LUKA, Sept 13 (Hina) - Bosnia-Herzegovina could be
faced with a huge financial crisis caused by increased obligations
on the line of internal financial debts, the High Representative
for Bosnia, Paddy Ashdown said on Friday. #L#
Speaking to MP's in the parliament in Republika Srpska in Banja
Luka, Ashdown said that the increased internal debt could in the
spring lead to a situation where there would not be enough money in
the budget to even pay for priority obligations such as salaries for
staff in education.
According to some estimates, the total internal debt in Bosnia
could be as high as 10 billion convertible marks including various
state debts - from old foreign savings to unpaid pension allowances
dating back to the war.
Bosnia's external debt is significantly less and amounts to 4
billion and 50 million marks.
Internal liquidity in Bosnia is particularly burdened by an
enormous and expensive red tape which cost each employee 900 marks
annually. Ashdown said that the internal crisis was just one of the
factors indicating that Bosnia did not have any more time to
postpone vital reforms.
For this reason the election scheduled for October 5 has special
significance because the government will be in power for the next
four years and will have to utilise this time to implement reforms,
the British diplomat said. The coming election is the last chance
for this, Ashdown said, warning that Bosnia could be up for an
expensive lesson if reforms were not implemented, particularly in
the economy.
He said that there was no reason for Bosnia not to follow the
positive example of its neighbours. He pointed out the particularly
successful example of Slovenia and Hungary, as well as Croatia,
where in the past ten years the Gross Domestic Product doubled.
Employment and legality are the only real topic of these elections,
Ashdown said, telling voters not to allow themselves to be dragged
into debates of the past and so-called national issues.
Ashdown also forwarded a message to the public in Republika Srpska
that there was no need to fear that the entity would be abolished. He
explained that the entity's existence is founded on the Dayton
Accord and the Bosnian Constitution.
(hina) sp lml