13.12.2002

Bulldozer Initiative

  • The High Representative launched an initiative on November 12th to dismantle barriers to business growth and job creation.  He called this a “bulldozer” effort, and our intention is to knock down as many roadblocks and cut as much red tape as we can to free up the economy for growth.
  • This is a new type of initiative: we want to hear from local businesses what are the main obstacles they face, what are the legislative changes that will make their activities more successful?  How can we together bulldoze away as many roadblocks as possible?
  • We already have started consultations with literally hundreds of businesses. They, together with local stakeholders, like business associations, regional development agencies, chambers of commerce, foreign investors association, employers association and others care about making this work.
  • We have received many roadblock submissions and we are currently reviewing them together with our local partner agencies. Once they have been filtered and prepared, those agencies will present them to the governments. Our aim is to pass 50 economic reforms by March 31st.
  • This is a real bottom-up, grassroots approach. The Bulldozer Committee is only serving as a delivery mechanism for the businessmen and women of this country. We sincerely hope that once the businesses would have submitted their issues, once the local stakeholders would have testify before the parliamentary assemblies, and once those 50 reforms will be passed, this process will be able to be carried-on without the OHR or any other agencies.
  • A “roadblock submission form” can be downloaded from this web page. If you are involved in a local business, we invite you to fill it and return it to the Bulldozer Committee.
  • What type of information to put on this form? On this form, you should point to a specific problem, if that problem can be solved by a legislative change. For instance, you can say: This is a problem for my business, and I think that if Article 23 of such law would be modified, then I would solve my problem. IMPORTANT: This is not a general complaint form. DO not write general complaints about the economy. You have to be precise. You have to indicate the law and the article in which you see a potential for improvement. You also should give your opinion on how those articles should be modified.