Speeches

Dear Mr. Mayor, President of the Assembly, past and new members of the Government and all of you gathered here on this occasion. It was refreshing to hear the Mayor’s presentation and congratulations to Mayor Djapo and to all of you taking your offices in this first elected District Government. The high voter turn out of 62% in Brcko District pro [...]

New Year is a time to take stock of the past year, and measure the tasks of the next one. 2004 was a year of real achievement. 2005 will be a year of historic opportunity and huge challenge. Bosnia and Herzegovina has successfully reached all the targets set out in my new year message a year ago, and more. The Indirect Taxation Authority, which [...]

We are meeting here today in a time of profound change. Everything is changing, even some things we can not yet perceive, because life is not static; because this country has committed to joining the EU and finally because of actions that have not been taken or some that have already been taken. I would like to focus on three of the changes that [...]

You won’t find anyone, prepared to stand up and say they support corruption. Everyone wants to be on record as a honest hardworking member of society against it, and in support of the fight against corruption. Unfortunately, you can’t fight corruption with words, takes deads. The only way to tackle corruption effectively, in BiH or in my country, [...]

The Food and Agriculture Organisation has completed its inventory of land resources in BiH and produced a manual that brings together a variety of useful and pertinent data, including academic studies and detailed maps. This exercise has revealed clear structural problems in the way land is utilized in BiH. The average farm size is well below th [...]

We are at the beginning of something. It might be exciting; it will certainly be difficult; I’m pretty sure it will be interesting. All of you have been elected. You have a popular mandate. You have, in an utterly new sense, power. How you use that power will determine the future of this country.

It is a great pleasure for me to have the opportunity to address you at this event, which is important for the future development of Bosnia and Herzegovina. We are here today to analysze and build on the significant achievements made by the non-governmental sector in recent years. The NGO Coalition “To Work and Succeed Together” has managed to do [...]

I am particularly pleased to be here, for two reasons The first is that we are here at BH Steel. This is a company that has been through a great deal – as has (we shouldn’t forget) every steel company in the world over the last 15 years – but which now has the prospect of turning its fortunes around. It can do this through a combination of BiH eng [...]

This is an appropriate forum at which to talk about Bosnia and Herzegovina. Because the experience of BiH in the nine years since Dayton offers a modern paradigm for post-conflict reconstruction, half a century after the Marshall Plan launched Europe into the longest sustained period of economic growth in history. And this is an exceptionally appr [...]

Today’s ceremony is a major step forward in establishing a reliable veterinary system as a core element in a coherent BiH trade policy. This is a prerequisite for tackling the balance of payments deficit (and a commitment given by the authorities as part of the government’s Action Plan) Establishing efficient, European-standard border animal heal [...]