The budget is of key importance to the city
functioning

The OHR calls upon the City Administration to create, as soon as possible, a
balanced, final draft for 2006 budget and to submit it before the City Council
for its adoption.

As you know, Mostar’s administrative bodies have functioned so far this year
thanks to a Decision on temporary financing. However this only covers the first
three months of this year and runs out at the end of this month.

Therefore it is paramount that a budget is passed as soon as possible in
order to allow administration to continue to function.

The OHR would like to use this opportunity to remind the
City Council of the difficult situation that occurred last year, because the
budget was adopted late. The OHR hopes that a City Council session with the
budget proposal on the agenda will be scheduled as soon as possible and the
budget for 2006 will be adopted within the legal deadline, which is31 March 2006 .

Apart from the adoption of the budget, there are a number of other issues
that the City Administration must finally address in order to meet its basic
obligation to establish itself so as to serve the citizens of Mostar in a
functional and efficient manner.

The issues that need to be addressed are: its internal organization, a
redundancy program for staff who will lose their jobs due to reorganization of
City Administration and the establishment of a unified urban planning
institution Only when the City authorities finalize these issues can they shift
focus their attention on from establishing themselves to the issue that counts –
improving conditions in Mostar for the citizens Mostar.

The OHR expects the City Authorities to take the necessary steps to deal with
the above issues.

BiH Leads Region in Alternative Dispute Resolution

Bosnia and Herzegovina is at the forefront of creating a positive environment
for Alternative Dispute Resolution in Southeast Europe, the High Representative,
Christian Schwarz-Schilling told a conference in Sarajevo this morning.

As many of you will know, ADR – where parties to a legal dispute explore ways
of reaching a solution without going to court – is a method by which as many as
50 percent of legal disputes are resolved in other countries. This takes a huge
amount of pressure off the courts and it means that businesses, for example,
have an alternative to lengthy and expensive court proceedings if they become
involved in a dispute.

Developing ADR in BiH is an important element in attracting investment in
order to create desperately needed jobs.

In addition to the economic benefits, the High Representative highlighted the
key role that ADR can play in moving BiH further and faster along its
post-conflict recovery path – because ADR is about enhancing dialogue and
encouraging a problem-solving mentality. The people who resolve the
dispute are the concerned parties themselves; solutions are not enforced from
above.

Since the beginning of 2003, when a programme organised by the International
Financial Corporation was launched, almost three quarters of the commercial
disputes submitted for ADR mediation in
Banja Luka
have been resolved and almost half of the cases
submitted in
Sarajevo
have been
resolved. This is a remarkable success rate.

The High Representative commended the authorities for creating the necessary
legal framework within which the BiH Association of Mediators can work
effectively, noting that  “Government bodies very rarely transfer this kind
of competency to an NGO type organisation, but this has happened here in

Bosnia and Herzegovina

.” He added, however, that “there
are still many underdeveloped areas such as peer mediation, family mediation,
and community mediation.”

Tourism Can Have Major Positive Impact on BiH Economic Growth and
Living Standards

“The BiH tourism sector is at the start of a postwar recovery that can be
rapid and that can generate a very substantial dividend in terms of inward
investment and new jobs,” the Principal Deputy High Representative will tell a
conference on BiH tourism being organized in
London tomorrow.

Ambassador Butler will highlight BiH’s core strengths as a tourist
destination – unparalleled natural environment, cultural and artistic heritage,
value for money, and accessibility – and the celebrated friendliness of the
population.

He will also emphasise that in recent years BiH has conclusively moved away
from its wartime past. “It is a small European democracy with a growing economy
and a deepening and expanding relationship with the European Union. For BiH the
dynamic and creative development of its tourism resources offer a real
possibility of attracting serious investment and creating new jobs in the kind
of numbers that will have a major positive impact on economic growth and living
standards.”

I’ve brought along the full text of Ambassador Butler’s
speech.