The Investment and Development Bank (IRB) of the Republika Srpska will increase the maximum amount of housing loans by 12 percent, that is, from 150,000 KM to 170,000 KM, it was concluded today at the meeting of the President of the Government of the Republika Srpska Radovan Višković and the management of this bank.
The Prime Minister of Srpska said that raising the limit for housing loans will be one of the good steps taken by the RBI aimed at the population, but that they should also work to support the economy.
He assessed that the software for collecting public calls, which is on the IRB website, is a great help for businessmen and local governments who are interested in receiving certain funds.
“We must not ignore the role of the RBI in the past three years. Perhaps we are the only community in the region that, during the corona virus pandemic, decided that the interest rate for all loans that go through the RBI is 0.5 percent, and today it is at that rate. level,” Viškovic told reporters after a meeting with the RBI management.
He stated that the IRB has invested more than three billion KM in the economy since its establishment, of which around KM 2.4 billion are loans and the rest are securities.
“It had a good effect on the economy of the Republika Srpska, and the facts show that in a time when many people lost thousands of jobs, the Republic of Srpska is increasing the number of employees, foreign trade balances, coverage of imports by exports from day to day…”, pointed out Višković.
He recalled the fire that occurred last year in the building where the RBI is located, and emphasized that the investigation showed that the accusations of individuals that the fire was set because of the alleged hiding of certain documents were not true, and that no documents were destroyed, and there are also spare ones that are stored in another location.
The acting director of the IRB, Dražen Vrhovac, stated that the bank’s new software is related to the collection of all public calls from donors in Bosnia and Herzegovina, concerning the Republika Srpska, as well as European access funds.
“The website contains a database in which a legal entity, local self-government, utility company only needs to register. We collect invitations and deliver them according to the activities that they perform, and together with them we write applications and projects in order to attract as many donor funds as possible. to Serbia and that our businessmen and local self-governments would have more money at their disposal, which also affects the development of Serbia,” said Vrhovac.
He added that the IRB, together with the Government of Srpska, has saved the domestic economy with a series of measures in recent years, and that it intensively promotes investment opportunities in Serbia abroad.
“Our financial result in 2021 is 4.1 million KM, and the preliminary report for last year is around 7.3 million KM,” concluded Vrhovac.