Edin Forto, Minister of Communications and Transport of Bosnia and Herzegovina - I expect Corridor Vc to be completed by 2030, the Sava mine-free by 2025, for the modernization of the railway Doboj-Tuzla-Zvornik EUR 500 million and the tender for the bridge over Tara by the end of the year

- This year, in cooperation with the Republic of Croatia, we are starting the development of a justification study for the reconstruction of the Una railway, i.e. the section Novi Grad-Bihać-Knin, with a total length of 179 kilometers, of which 120 kilometers pass through Bosnia and Herzegovina, which is an extremely important railway infrastructure connection between the two countries, which was used by one million passengers in 1991 and which transported four million tons of goods. After years of inadequate attitude towards this infrastructural potential, in cooperation with our partners from the Republic of Croatia, we will put all our energy into making this railway come alive again.

In April this year, the Agreement on the construction of a bridge over the Tara River and connecting sections on the Brod na Drina-Šćepan Polje road came into force. One big blemish from the past when it comes to the cooperation between Bosnia and Herzegovina and Montenegro, and one big opportunity in the present to improve the quality of life in this region. This topic has been on the agenda for a long time with many, I would say too many, missed opportunities. I would not go back in time and dwell on missed opportunities. Today we have a clear vision - a modern road Brod na Drina-Šćepan Polje, which connects the capitals of the two countries, Sarajevo and Podgorica, with a new interstate bridge on the Tara River, and a modern integrated border crossing on the territory of Montenegro. The cooperation with the Montenegrin side is excellent at the moment, the Montenegrin part of the access road to the new bridge is being designed. We have completed the main project for the access road and the new bridge, we are carrying out certain documentation updates.

Also, we have repeatedly repeated the readiness of the European Union to co-finance the construction of this road through the Growth Plan and Investment Framework for the Western Balkans. After all these years, my expectations are that by the autumn of this year we will call for a tender for the construction of the bridge and the connecting sections in accordance with the interstate agreement that is now in full implementation. We still have some preliminary issues to resolve, but, apart from occasional tapeworms of a rather political nature, I don`t see any obstacles at the moment that could jeopardize the realization of this project. It seems to me that today, for the first time, we are all on the same mission and all with the same goal.

We are starting the demining of the right bank of the Sava River, we are carrying out the reconstruction and marking of the waterway, we are starting the reconstruction of the road bridge over the Sava River in Brčko, where the main project is under construction, we are preparing for a technical inspection of the bridges on the border with the Republic of Serbia that are under the jurisdiction of Bosnia and Herzegovina, we are negotiating for the road communication from Bihać to the Republic of Croatia, we are preparing a project to improve the infrastructure at border crossings, we are launching the digitization of transport permits for neighboring countries.

The digital age has greatly shown its positive sides in countries and regions and Europe, it is high time that the digital transformation starts in our country, starting with the most basic benefit, so that citizens and companies no longer have to carry papers, but with a click, electronically solve their obligations today they take a lot of time and nerves. It is important that as many institutions and levels of government as possible understand this as their obligation and start on the path of digitization. Forward-thinking countries invest in digital infrastructure and citizen services as much as in physical infrastructure such as roads or railways.

In contrast to them, the situation in our country is that there is not enough investment, but what is even more devastating is the fact that Bosnia and Herzegovina has not yet withdrawn any KM of European and international funds for the field of digitization. This is where we made a breakthrough - we ended the negotiations with the European Commission in record time on our country`s accession to the Digital Europe Program through which the European Commission secured a fund of one and a half billion KM. We strive to be a generator of good ideas and best experiences that we collect through regional and EU cooperation.