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Project update November 1997 - more |
Danish social partners in commerce will launch major school project in Bosnia and Herzegovina
FIET trade union solidarity project gains new dimension as labour and employer leaders visit Sarajevo
The top leaders of Denmark's social partners in commerce have pledged to help rebuild the Economics School of Sarajevo. During a visit to Bosnia and Herzegovina at FIET's invitation, HK Handel president Jörgen Hoppe and his employer counterpart Sören B. Henriksen, senior managing director of Dansk Handel & Service met with the country's education minister and other officials to discuss the launching of this project. The school in central Sarajevo was badly destroyed during the war as it was situated on the very frontline.
| If Denmark's social partners in commerce succeed in their intentions, the destroyed Economics School of Sarajevo will soon be the most modern institution of its kind in the whole Balkans region. Within FIET's solidarity project in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Danish employer head Sören B. Henriksen visited Sarajevo and the ruins of its Economics School in July. |  |
Consisting of 28 classrooms and a total surface of almost 5,000 sq.m., the school building will be renovated by the Bosnian government. The Danish social partners have been asked to help with providing furniture and equipment as well as to assist in adapting the curriculum to the needs of an emerging market economy. At a FIET press conference in Sarajevo in July, Mr Sören Henriksen said that the ambition is to create not only the most modern economics school in Bosnia and Herzegovina but in the whole Balkans.
To rebuild and develop the education system is one of the most important parts of the war recovery effort in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The country's education authorities are particularly worried about the lack of vocational training opportunities which will be an obstacle both for reconstruction and for the transition to a market economy. The initiative by FIET and the Danish social partners is therefore particularly important, said the minister of education as he discussed with the delegation.
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FIET and the Danish social partners discussed the Economics School project also with Mr Malic Kulenovic, the minister of education of the canton of Sarajevo, left in the picture. With him are Jan Furstenborg of FIET, Alex Rüdig, the FIET project director in Bosnia and Herzegovina, HK Handel president Jörgen Hoppe and Sören B. Henriksen, senior managing director of Dansk Handel & Service. Mr Henriksen is also the vice president for social affairs of FIET's European social partners, EuroCommerce. |
During their stay in Sarajevo, Jörgen Hoppe and Sören B. Henriksen held talks also with the president of the Independent Trade Union Confederation, Mr Suleiman Hrle, with FIET's two member trade unions and with leading representatives of the commercial employers' association. As a result of these discussions, the social partners in commerce in Bosnia and Herzegovina have agreed to work closely with each other in the field of vocational training. The first visible results of this co-operation will be a major conference in Mostar in the beginning of October, within the framework of FIET's solidarity project in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The FIET Solidarity Project in Bosnia and Herzegovina
Project update November 1997 - more about the Economics School project
Our e-mail address: jan_furstenborg@fiet.org
