16.10.2007 OHR / EUSR

Media Advisory: Conference Aims to Put Economic Issues Back at Centre of BiH Public Debate

Prime Ministers Nikola Spiric, Nedzad Brankovic and Milorad Dodik, as well as Brcko District Mayor, Mirsad Djapo, will join policymakers, businesspeople, workers representatives and consumer groups at a conference organized by OHR/EUSR at the BiH Parliament Building in Sarajevo tomorrow.

The conference will discuss immediate steps that can be taken in order to boost investment and job creation and raise living standards.

One of the main objects of the meeting is to help put economic issues back at the centre of public debate in Bosnia and Herzegovina. As HR/EUSR Miroslav Lajcak will stress in his opening remarks, “Reforms that could help turn modest improvements in the economy into full-scale economic takeoff have been among the most serious casualties of political deadlock. This is a problem that the citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina do not need to have.”

The conference will be opened by Prime Minister Spiric, HR/EUSR Lajcak and the Head of the European Commission Delegation in Bosnia and Herzegovina Dimitris Kourkoulas. The morning sessions will be chaired by PDHR Raffi Gregorian and BiH’s Chief SAA Negotiator Igor Davidovic.

The three prime ministers and the Brcko District Mayor will participate in the afternoon session, which will be chaired by HR/EUSR Lajcak and Ambassador Kourkoulas.

All media are cordially invited to cover the opening remarks to be made by Prime Minister Spiric, HR/EUSR Lajcak and Ambassador Kourkoulas at

9.00 on Tuesday 16 October 2007

in the Parliament Chamber

BiH Institutions Building

Journalists will be able to be present throughout the morning session of the conference, from 9.30 to 13.00.

HR/EUSR Lajcak, Ambassador Kourkoulas, Prime Minister Spiric, Prime Minister Brankovic, Prime Minister Dodik and Brcko Mayor Mirsad Djapo will hold a Joint Press Conference at the conclusion of the conference

at 16.00 on Tuesday 16 October 2007

the Press Conference Room

BiH Institutions Building

All media are cordially invited to cover this event.