The Government of the Republic of Srpska held today (25 March 2021) its 114^th session chaired by the Prime Minister of the Republic of Srpska Radovan Višković.

During the session, the Government approved the Bill on Acquiring the Status of Independent Artist and Independent Culture Expert which prescribes the conditions and manner of acquiring the status of independent artist and independent culture expert, their rights and obligations, records keeping, provision of funds and other issues significant for this category.

Persons who on the basis of general and special conditions acquire the status of an independent artist and an independent culture expert acquire the rights of obligatory contributions for pension and disability insurance, health insurance, unemployment insurance and child protection.

An independent artist is an artist who independently, as his/her only occupation, creates works of art or performs and interprets works of art or works in the field of art and culture, while an independent culture expert is an expert who independently creates unique works, performs research, theoretical and critical, educational and specialized, production and organizational work in the field of art and culture in accordance with the law governing the field of culture.

The procedure for granting the status of an independent artist, i.e. an independent culture expert is carried out through a public call issued by the Ministry of Education and Culture.

The goal of establishing the status of an independent artist and independent culture expert is to encourage artistic and cultural creativity of artists and culture experts of the Republic of Srpska, and to determine administrative and financial measures to strengthen their artistic and professional creativity.

The Government of the Republic of Srpska has approved the Draft Law on Amendments to the Law on the Securities Market. The key changes envisaged by this Draft, prepared by the Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Srpska, are: modernization of the provisions of the Law related to the prospect, simplification of the procedure of the emission of securities while maintaining a satisfactory level of transparency, further development of broker and dealer activities, dealing with consequences of the pandemic and further harmonization with the legal regulations of the European Union. 

The Government of the Republic of Srpska passed the Decree on Amendments to the Decree on the Conditions for Opening a Foreign Currency Account Abroad. The proposed amendments to the Regulation refer to: extension of purposes for which an approval may be issued for opening and using a foreign currency account abroad, specifying the most common cases of collection of receivables abroad conditioned by the opening of a foreign currency account abroad and which refer to collection of receivables by the owners on the account of sale of their real estate abroad, collection on the basis of sale of a company or a part of equity in a company abroad, termination of a company, payment of profit from investment in a company and other similar grounds. Then, on the basis of explicit stipulation that a foreign currency account is considered a foreign currency account of a business units established abroad which represents a separate organizational part of a legal entity, defining the terms of investments abroad and in terms of this Decree, prescribing the documentation to be submitted with the application for approval for financing investment works abroad performed directly from the Republic of Srpska and not through a business unit abroad, depending on the method of financing, prescribing also the conditions under which the approval for investment works abroad can be extended, prescribing that the approval for a business unit of a resident abroad may be issued for the period on which it is established for the purpose of performing economic activity for which it is registered abroad, instead of the previous period of one year or the period for which the contractual obligation applies, prescribing the obligation of the resident to report to the Republic Foreign Exchange Inspectorate of Republic of Srpska on investment activities abroad and foreign currency account balance abroad and other improvements of technical nature.

The Government has approved the Draft Law on Strategic Planning and Development Management of Republic of Srpska.

This Law regulates the system of strategic planning and development management in the Republic of Srpska, principles on which strategic planning and development management is based, institutional framework, strategic and implementation documents, sources of financing for realization of development strategic priorities of sustainable development and other issues relevant for strategic planning and development management in Republic of Srpska.

The main reason for enactment of the law is having a more complete and more comprehensive regulation of the area of ​​strategic planning as a basic component of public policy development.

Also, an important reason for passing the law is a harmonized approach to strategic planning based on the same methodologies at both levels of the government - the Republic level and the level of local self-government units which would contribute to balanced development of society in all segments.

Therefore, the goal of this Law is to establish a unique and functional system of planning and management of sustainable development in the Republic of Srpska which provides the preconditions for the harmonized development of the Republic of Srpska. It would also establish a long-term, sustainable and efficient system of strategic planning and development management and create conditions for better access to EU funds, as well as increasing absorption capacity and using extra-budgetary funds to finance the implementation of development priorities.

The Government also adopted the "Strategy for the Development of Internal Financial Control System of the Public Sector for the 2021-2025 period". The strategy contains an overview of objectives and operational measures for that period. The areas covered are: financial management and control (FMC), internal audit (IR) and the Central Harmonization Unit (CHU).

This Strategy is a continuation of the commitment of the Government of the Republic of Srpska to further strengthen the preconditions for legally harmonized, efficient, effective, economical, transparent and responsible management of public finances in accordance with the internationally accepted management principles and control standards.

The Government of the Republic of Srpska has issued an Instruction on organization of work during the pandemic of coronavirus (COVID-19).

This Instruction regulates the organization of the work process in the administrative bodies of the Republic of Srpska, the manner of organizing work from home and the use of breaks during the pandemics of the coronavirus (COVID-19).

During the pandemic of corona virus (COVID 19), the republican administrative bodies will organize work from home for the jobs where it is possible in accordance with the recommendations of the HQ for Emergency Situations.

When organizing the work process and especially with regard to the organization and referral of workers to work from home, it is necessary to take into consideration and care to protect particularly vulnerable categories of workers, such as: pregnant and breastfeeding mothers, workers with reduced working capacity or risk of disability, person suffering from an occupational disease, the elderly and people with chronic diseases (including hypertension, pulmonary and cardiac diseases, diabetes, cancer diseases), persons with disabilities, persons with family responsibilities (taking care of children or other close family members), as well as other persons whose health is particularly endangered.

The Government of the Republic of Srpska adopted the Information on the Request of the production company "NETFILM" d.o.o. Banja Luka for financial support of the feature film "Children of Kozara".

The Ministry of Education and Culture and the Ministry of Finance have been commissioned to  provide funds from the 2021 Budget of the Republic of Srpska in the amount of BAM 200,000.00 for the purpose of financial support to the film.

The film "Children of Kozara" will present the tragedy of the sufferings of children, Serbs and other peoples during the Second World War and tell the tragic story of the genocide committed by the Independent State of Croatia. Thus, it is in line with the European efforts to mark the culture of remembrance especially for the crime of genocide, with a film that has this tragedy in all its elements.

It is an international film project and the partners are from Serbia, the Czech Republic, France, Northern Macedonia, Slovenia and Croatia while the entire movie will be filmed on the territory of Republic of Srpska and all film capacities of the Republic of Srpska will be engaged so that it would get the status of the main producer.

The Government passed a Decision on amendments to the Decision on determining the priority projects from the Public Investment Program of the Republic of Srpska for financing from the 2021 Budget with the distribution of funds.

From the budget funds for public investments in 2021, funds were approved for co-financing the project of reconstruction of the pressure pipeline from the pumping station Vrelo Praca to the Mladost reservoir and construction of the primary sewage network of the Tourist Sports Center Dvorista, completion of works at the Faculty of Medicine in Foča and reconstruction of the historic monastery of Miloševac (Prijedor municipality).