New Year’s Greetings from the President of the Republic of Srpska
New Year’s Greetings from the Republic of Srpska President Željka Cvijanović:
“Dear citizens of the Republic of Srpska,
At a time when we send off one and when we are waiting for the New Year to come, we need to look again at what we have done together in the previous period and particularly what we will do in the time ahead. Everything we achieve will be a joint result of both, institutions and our citizens, as it has been so far.
Not a single year has been easy, and so is this 2019 which we send off, but we have shown again and proved that we can make progress when we are together and when we are gathered around the interests of the Republic of Srpska.
Despite numerous obstacles, the delay in the formation of government at the BiH level in accordance with the will expressed by the citizens of the Republic of Srpska in the 2018 elections, despite various efforts to obstruct the work of the Republic of Srpska institutions and to make them weak, we have managed to preserve and improve our financial, economic and social position.
It is important that we have had political stability because it is a precondition for the functioning of institutions. We also had good cooperation with our social partners and as a result of that cooperation, we were able to increase salaries, pensions and social benefits. We have continued the implementation of numerous infrastructure projects, as well as those in the field of health and education, all of which – the construction of the Republic, the creation of new jobs and the increase of personal incomes of our citizens, will remain priorities in the coming year.
Great activities to improve our demographic image and to reform the entire education system is ahead of us. These are also the biggest and most difficult tasks facing our institutions, and in order to come up with good solutions, it will be necessary for us to open a broad debate over these topics.
If we wish our children to graduate from schools and colleges on the basis of which they can get decent jobs and earn a solid income, we will need to take solutions and good practices from those societies and states that have been able to transform faster.
We need to bring the role of the family back to the place it deserves and belongs to. We need all of us together – parents, schools, sports clubs and cultural and artistic societies – to offer our children as much contents as possible that will enrich their growth and keep them out of the challenges, which, unfortunately, abounds in modern times.
We look forward to the year 2020, ready for new victories. Our intention is to focus even more on economic development, the implementation of important infrastructure projects and the improvement of the living standards of our citizens.
Our common goal is a more successful, developed and happier Republic of Srpska in which individuals and collectives will feel secure and in which institutions will be able to respond to the citizens’ expectations. That is why it is important that we maintain peace and stability.
We need to build tolerance among citizens and different nations because we can be a successful society only when we show what is best in us, not the opposite.
We need to be able to reward those who have achieved great results in any field, to recognise the talents in our society and open up a space for them to improve. It has been a great honor for me to be able to get to know many of them and help them present their knowledge, skills and talents in various national and international competitions over the past years.
Dear citizens of the Republic of Srpska, in 2020 I wish you good health, personal and family happiness, success on a professional and every other level.
With the desire for the coming year to be a year of stability, togetherness and progress, I extend congratulations to you over the New Year, Christmas holidays for all who celebrate, as well as the coming Day of the Republic”, reads the congratulation message by the President of the Republic of Srpska.