During a visit to BiH, the Director General of Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency-Sida, Mr Anders Nordström, has met the Charge d'Affaires of the EC Delegation to BiH, Mr. Boris Iarochevitch and discussed matters of mutual interest.
Main topics which were discussed included coordination of the support to BiH on its road towards candidate status. The EC and Sweden have common priorities such as: support to public administration reform, judicial sector and to economic development, has been informed from the EC Delegation to BiH.
Specifically, cooperation between Sweden and EC regarding support to the 2011 BiH Population and Housing Census has been agreed. Conducting the Census is a high priority because it will improve the statistical capacity in all three statistics institutions in BiH, strengthen the statistical system of BiH, and improve the quality and comprehensiveness of statistics. Poor statistics is widely seen as a major barrier to sound policy making without which BiH cannot achieve the level of economic development necessary to join the EU.
Preparation for the Census is a strategic choice for EU IPA assistance. The Project has been developed by the BiH Agency for Statistics in cooperation with the two entity statistical institutes. Sweden has decided to make a contribution amounting to approximately €1,600,000, which together with the EU contributions will result in a total contribution of up to €3,000,000. The Swedish contribution will be part of IPA 2008 and is planned to be effective by the end of this year.