Within the joint realization of the Growth-Oriented Local Development project (GOLD), a Memorandum of Understanding was signed in Banjaluka between the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA) and partner communities Gradiska, Prijedor, Kotor Varos, Laktasi, Mrkonjic Grad and Teslic.
The GOLD project, which will include 48 municipalities from Bosnia and Herzegovina, will last five years, and its total value is $ 20 million.
The project aims to create new jobs, attract foreign investors, increase exports and revenues through the promotion of a sustainable economic development model.
“The project should directly and indirectly contribute to creating 16.000 new jobs. We believe that this is a crucial project, bearing in mind the situation of Bosnia and Herzegovina in the last year. Being in touch with the citizens we have heard that their biggest problems are unemployment and lack of transparency of local government, which this project will seek to remove,” said Thomas Rojas, director of the economic department of USAID in B&H.