12/02/2003 Bulldozer Committee

Bulldozer Phase II to be complete by 31 January

The newly-appointed Emergency Reform Units (ERUs) – young civil servants tasked with steering Bulldozer reforms through government and parliamentary procedure so that benefits can be delivered to citizens as quickly as possible – held a plenary meeting in Jajce on Friday 28 November and drew up a campaign plan for implementing the next 50 Bulldozer reforms.  These reforms are designed to cut cumbersome bureaucracy and unnecessary regulation, and make it easier to create jobs and attract investment. 

In the second phase of the Bulldozer Initiative, the Bulldozer Committees presented 50 reforms to the BiH governments on 10 November. At today’s meeting the ERUs committed themselves to securing enactment of these reforms by 31 January 2004.

Reforms include, for example, making it easier for companies to do business by allowing faxed orders to be treated as written documents (which means that a faxed order doesn’t have to be delivered by post in order to be legally valid), and harmonising the Entity veterinary laws so that it will be easier to export agricultural products from BiH in fulfillment of EU, WTO and WHO rules.

“This is ambitious but it can be done and today we resolved to ensure that it is done,” said Tina Radonjic of the RS ERU. “The point of doing things quickly is to get the benefits of these reforms to citizens as quickly as possible.’

Said Majda Becirovic of the State ERU, “Speedy adoption will send a positive signal to the European Union that the governments of BiH are seriously committed to reforms that will make our economy more investor-friendly and which pave the way for faster economic development and, ultimately, membership of the EU.”