Nezavisne novine: BANJALUKA – The authorities of the Republic of Srpska will in the following two years invest in public projects 1.9 billion marks, including the money from the sale of the “Telekom Srpske”. This was released by Aleksandar Džombić, minister of finances of the RS.

According to his words, the Government yesterday adopted the Programme of Public Investments by 2010, which stipulates that investments are to be done from the Development Programme, based on sales of the “Telekoma”, budget, foreign loans and grants from abroad.

As foreseen, in this year 679 million KM should be released in public investments. From October last year, according to the data of the Ministry of Finances, 77 public projects were approved, which are financed from the sales of the “Telekom”, worth 267.6 million KM.

The biggest part of the money, around 229 million, was reserved for restoration and building of infrastructure, for employment, 18.4 million was reserved, and for health care reform, 20 million.

Minister Džombić said that he will soon submit to the Council for Development, which decides on distribution of the money from privatization of the “Telekom”, projects for 20 municipalities to whom not one project was approved, so all the local communities could benefit from the sales of the “Telekom”.

He said that from that money, currently 373 kilometers of roads, one tunnel, nine water mains, 21 schools, three sports halls and six culture homes are being built.

Minister Džombić estimated that financial difficulties, such as those that caught these days the budget of the Federation of BiH, cannot affect economic currents in the RS, but in the long term they could present a problem especially if, as he said, rapid growth of public expenditure in the FBiH and the state institutions continues.