On Friday, June 24, 2011, the Ambassador of the Kingdom of Norway, Mr. Jan Braathu, visited the Municipality of Ravno, where a meeting was held in the office of the Mayor of Ravno, Mr. Andrija Šimunović. The meeting was also attended by the Mayor of Ljubinje, Mr. Vesko Budinčić; Director General of the Norwegian Foundation for Business Innovation, Mr. Jon Steinar Ostgaard; representative of the Center for Development of Herzegovina (CRH) from Trebinje, Slobodan Vulešić and representatives of the Association of Citizens “Nešto Više”, Aleksandar Bundalo and Velibor Sudar. At the working meeting, Ambassador Braath was presented with the progress of the project “Inter-Entity Cooperation and Integration of Local Communities of Ljubinje and Ravno through Agricultural Production”, supported by the Embassy of the Kingdom of Norway in BiH. Mayor Šimunović and other participants thanked Ambassador Braath for his understanding and support of this project, which contributes to the sustainable development of small rural communities such as Ravno and Ljubinje.
The main goal of the project is to enable inter-entity cooperation and socio-economic development of Ljubinje and Ravno through the support of economic, environmental and social sustainability through agricultural production and efficient use of related services. The project partners are the Municipality of Ljubinje and the Municipality of Ravno from Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Norwegian non-profit organization “Business Innovation Programs” (BIP), in cooperation with the non-governmental organizations Center for Development of Herzegovina (CRH) and Nešto Više.
Most of the funds for the project were provided by the Embassy of the Kingdom of Norway in BiH, and the implementation of the project lasts from March 2011 to March 2012.
Crops of seedless watermelon, planted through the mentioned project in Galičići, Popovo polje, were visited after the meeting. Ambassador Braathu expressed satisfaction with the implementation of the project so far and supported the efforts of all involved aimed at the successful completion of the project.
The harvest is expected in the next month, and at the beginning of August the first watermelon truck will be exported to a Norwegian buyer, Bama-Gruppen AS.
The need for successful implementation of the remaining activities was emphasized, such as: prcurement of appropriate packaging for the transport of watermelons to Norway, collection of documentation required for export, etc.
