SARAJEVO, Aug 23 (Hina) - The Croatian government's letter of intent regarding the construction of the Budapest-Ploce highway section running through Bosnia-Herzegovina (corridor Vc) will be discussed at the next session of the
Council of Ministers of Bosnia-Herzegovina, the country's Transport and Communications Minister Branko Dokic has said.
SARAJEVO, Aug 23 (Hina) - The Croatian government's letter of
intent regarding the construction of the Budapest-Ploce highway
section running through Bosnia-Herzegovina (corridor Vc) will be
discussed at the next session of the Council of Ministers of Bosnia-
Herzegovina, the country's Transport and Communications Minister
Branko Dokic has said. #L#
In a statement for Saturday's issue of Nezavisne novine from Banja
Luka, Dokic said that the Council of Ministers should define its
final position on Croatia's proposal at its next session. He added
that all options were still open regardless of what was being
reported about the "Bosmal" company.
Commenting on a letter the company's management sent to the
government of the Federation of Bosnia-Herzegovina, which denied
the local authorities the right to continue building a section of
the highway running from Sarajevo to Zenica, Dokic said the company
manager's claims that other companies, including those from
Croatia, no longer had any chance of landing the job were
unfounded.
The Bosnian media today continue to focus on Croatia's letter of
intent, which was delivered yesterday to the Bosnian Foreign
Ministry.
Almost all papers carried its contents, with comments ranging from
extremely negative to moderately positive.
Dnevni avaz has again taken on the most aggressive approach in
criticising the Croatian proposal.
The paper suggests in a headline that Zagreb has sent a "bleak
three-page letter of intent in principle". The author of a
commentary on this topic describes Croatia's letter as a letter of
"ill intent", adding that Croatian PM Ivica Racan behaves like
former Croatian President Franjo Tudjman, trying to dictate what
Bosnian authorities should do.
A similar stand has been presented by a vice-president of the Social
Democratic Action (SDA) party, Seada Palavric.
She has told reporters that Croatia's offer is "much less good" than
Bosmal's, "even if one assumes that it is well-intentioned".
Palavric claims that a public tender is only a waste of time and that
a much better solution for Bosnia is to directly sign a contract
with the privately-owned firm.
This stand is completely opposed to what BH Presidency chairman
Dragan Covic advocates. The authorities in Banja Luka have recently
voiced vocal support for a public tender as well.
Republika Srpska President Dragan Cavic has said that it is clear
that the construction of the highway section complicates relations
between Croatia and Bosnia and that contracts worth more than
25,000 euros require a public tender. Something similar has been
stated by the Serb member of the state presidency, Borislav
Paravac, who has said that Malaysia's reported readiness to
financially back Bosmal should be checked.
This was allegedly to be done by the Bosniak member of the state
presidency, Sulejman Tihic, however, he has said that this is the
responsibility of other institutions.
Corridor Vc is not the only cause of dissension among Bosnian
officials. Paravac has said that Tihic is responsible for the
failure to adopt a protocol amending an agreement between Croatia
and Bosnia on the Ploce port. Tihic has responded by saying he only
wanted the amended agreement to be completely clear so as to avoid
possible problems in case of arbitration.
Commenting on that issue, Tihic's party colleague, Premier Adnan
Terzic, has said he regrets the Bosnian Presidency's decision not
to adopt the previously agreed protocol, as it would have
introduced Bosnia in the port's management the soonest.
(hina) rml