Bosnia Hopeful Ahead of Donors Conference

Bosnia's Foreign Minister, Zlatko Lagumdzija, on Tuesday said he was confident that enough money would be raised at Wednesday's donors conference in Brussels to meet the country's immediate needs.

Lagumdzija said Bosnia had readied for the conference with updated data concerning its needs after the devastating floods that hit Bosnia in mid-May destroyed or damaged around 100,000 buildings.

“It is clear that 16 per cent of GDP... which was destroyed in the floods, cannot be restored overnight," he said, "but we believe that tomorrow in Brussels we will succeed in ending what is defined as the first phase [concerning] short-term or urgent needs.”

Lagumdzija estimated the total cost of repairing the damage in Bosnia and Herzegovina at 2 billion euro. The cost of meeting short-term or urgent needs - assuring people a roof over their heads - has been set at around 180 million euro. The cost of the total damage to housing is set at 440 million euro.

The minister did not wish to say how exactly much might be pledged at the conference, but he was convinced that the country's most urgent needs would be covered.

“For urgent housing... the Republika Srpska needs 160 million KM, [80 million euro] the Federation some 190 million KM [95 million euro] and Brcko District 8 million KM [4 million euro],” Lagumdzija said, referring to the country's two autonomous entities and one district.

Some municipalities had already assigned land for the purpose of building new houses for people whose homes were destroyed in landslides, he noted.

In the run-up to the conference, Bosnia's own institutions have gathered money from their budgets and redirected them as donations for flood repair. Loans from international...